Dull
by dandylionnn
Summary: Agreeing to help the ghost Sasuke regain his memories and move on into the next world, Hinata unknowingly allows into her life the one person that can show her self worth, and prove that love transcends all boundaries. sasuhina.
1. Prologue

7.23.10

_Dull_

**Full Summary: **For Hyuuga Hinata, seeing ghosts is an everyday thing. They come from far and wide to seek her assistance, because she's the only one who can help them move on into the next world. When a certain deceased Uchiha Sasuke catches wind of her abilities and comes asking for her help, things begin to get stranger as she quickly realizes that he isn't a regular ghost. There's more than meets the eye to this dead guy!

Disclaimer: Yeah, so I don't own Naruto. That should be obvious though…

**a/n ::** Yo, what's up? This is the queen speaking, and thanks for checking out my first story on this account! I hope this chapter isn't boring for you; it's just the prologue after all. I was planning on introducing Sasuke in this chapter, too, but I just figured it wouldn't work out right so I left him out of this one. But, no worries, he'll probably pop up in the next chapter!

I think the rating's a little high. It's not like this story has blood, guts, and gore (as far I as know, anyways), but I just wanted to be safe in case there's a whole bunch of cussing.

I had a lot of problems trying to figure out a title for this baby. Some of the ones I was debating were Ghost Charmer, Here Ghostie, Here Boy! (I thought that one was cute but much too long), Echo, and Quiet. I don't know what the last two really have in common with the story's plot or anything, but it sounded cool, haha. Anyways, it's almost four a.m. as I'm writing this so give me some credit!

Eventually, I settled on what it is called now. (I actually forgot the title for a couple of minutes there…)

But, moving along.

Without further ado, I present to you: Dull.

* * *

ooo :: prologue

One. Two. Three.

No, wait, four.

Four, right?

No. Just three.

There were exactly three ghosts trailing Hinata Hyuuga at that exact moment, the same three she had seen yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. Obviously, they knew her secret: they knew that she could see them. Well, they were suspicious anyways. It was obvious that they were waiting for her to slip up, for her to show any sign that she could communicate with them; and that was when they would strike.

That was when they were going to get down on their knees and beg.

All they had to do was: wait for her mistake. Even a small one would do; it didn't have to be anything dramatic. She didn't need to stand up and yell at them to leave her alone and go back to hell; a small glance in their direction, a gulp of anxiety, a hitch in the breath, or a nervous twitch. Any of those would set them off and confirm their doubts.

What they didn't know was that she had the advantage.

What they didn't know was that she was good at what she did.

And, what was it that she did?

Well, she ignored the dead.

The only sounds in the room were the tick-tocks of the clock providing unneeded pressure on the poor high school students, and the soft scribbles of pencils against very important papers that, at first glance, would seem as harmless as a puff of cloud; in reality, it would determine their report card grades and, pretty much, the rest of their life. Or so the adults said, anyways.

Hinata bit her bottom lip, tapping the end of her pen against her cheek. She was the only girl in the entire classroom that would complete a math test in ink, and because of it, her paper was usually the messiest. She could feel one of the ghosts peering over her shoulder, peeking at her answers and muttering about how she had forgotten to add pi to the answer to question number one. Mentally, Hinata sighed, but she made sure not to hesitate in her scribbles in case it tipped them off; too bad she couldn't go back and change it. That was a couple of points off for sure.

From her peripheral vision, she could see one ghost kneel down next to her. Though their colors were dulled, she was very pretty; long black hair and a cute, pink kimono, too, something that Hinata would not be able to pull off.

Great. Even the dead looked better than her.

"I know you can see me," the ghost said softly, placing a hand on top of Hinata's, though she couldn't feel anything.

_Ignore them, ignore them._ She forced herself to relax.

"I know you can see _us_," the pretty girl corrected herself with a smile. "It's very shameful of us to come to you and bother you with our problems when you obviously have plenty of your own. I'm sure it's very hard to concentrate on this math test when you are thoroughly distracted by our loud noises." Her laugh was like a bell, but no one in the room even glanced in her direction so Hinata followed suit. As long as she didn't answer them, they would leave her alone, believing that she wasn't the one they were looking for.

Her voice dropped a couple of notches. "Please, I'm begging you," she whispered. "You can understand where we're coming from, right? You understand that there are people we left behind without a word, people that still wonder about us, and love us."

Hinata was listening intently, despite the advice she gave herself. She couldn't help it! Her heart just flew out to these ghosts, to these people who desperately need assistance. It was the problem with being so caring toward others, despite them being complete strangers.

But... No, it was better to not be involved with the affairs of the dead; nothing good ever came out of it. They were just going to find someone else or deal with it themselves. Still...she felt for them.

"Please, help us."

_Don't listen to her. Concentrate, concentrate! Okay, if I move the four to the other side of the equal sign, I'll have—_

"There's no one else we can turn to. Hinata Hyuuga, you're our only hope for salvation."

…_Um…uh…If…If I move…If I move the four to the other—_

"We can't move on otherwise."

_Four. Other side of the equal sign. Then—_

"Please. Please, won't you help us?"

The pen stopped scribbling.

"I think he did it," one of the ghosts whispered. "Haku actually did it."

"So she _can _see us! And the bitch was just pretending not to the entire time?"

"Shh! Do you want her to help us or not, Zaku? Then shut it!"

She racked her brain on a decision; the last time she helped out a ghost, she ended up almost failing math! With these dead guys all around her, how was a girl supposed to study? How was she supposed to get into a good college and find a wonderful husband and start a perfect family and become a daughter her father would be proud of? No, no, she couldn't help these people; they were dead, gone, six feet under, but she was still alive, still living. She still had a future, a life ahead of her and these ghosts…

They'd just wander around for all eternity.

Hinata let out an audible sigh.

"Can I…take that as a sign that you will assist us?"

Lavendar orbs turned to the pretty girl. Turning over her hand, she wrote on her palm a yes and gave a small reassuring – though tired – smile.

A grin erupted on the ghosts' face.

"Thank you so much, Miss Hinata Hyuuga," the pretty one said. "We shall come again when you have been released from school."

With that, they disappeared, and so did the noise. Finally, she could focus on finishing her math test – **RING!**

Well. So much for completing it and getting at least a passing grade.

See? Nothing good came from associating with the dead. Why couldn't she understand that?

"That's the bell, class." Mr. Hatake announced from behind his orange book. "Put your writing utensils down and turn in your papers at my desk. Naruto! When I say, 'put down your writing utensils,' I mean, 'stop writing,' not, 'scribble down random numbers and hope to get at least one of them right.'"

"Aw, come on, Kakashi! Have a heart!"

"Too bad, Naruto. Let's go; turn it in, people."

One by one, the students lined up at his desk and placed their paper down in a pile that was far from neat; after all, that was the only way students could get back at teachers for not giving them more time. That and nasty looks, but that could result in a detention so only the really stupid ones did that – like Naruto Uzumaki. Or, that was what most would say. In all honesty, Hinata thought he was a very admirable person, someone to look up to for their courage and bravery and generosity. Plus, he was really good-looking.

Well, normally, the infatuated Hyuuga would take a moment to take in how bright he seemed to shine with his fantastic smile and kind and charming eyes, but at that moment, all she could really think about was how she was going to fail math to help ghosts who pretty much didn't have anything going for them. But, that was a good thing, right? She was doing a good deed by helping these lost souls.

Oh, God, once her father received her report card, she was going to become one of the lost souls, wasn't she? Oh, God. It was an inevitable outcome.

Making her way to her locker, Hinata bent down and took off her backpack, fiddling with the lock until she managed to open the metal door up and cram a bunch of textbooks into her backpack. If she was going to fail, she might as well study for the next one. At that point, she wasn't aiming for a high A anymore; a good D would do the job for the moment. Desperate situations call for desperate measures.

"Hinata! Hey, Hinata!"

A light blush coated her cheeks as she turned to see the magnificent Naruto bounding down the hall toward her, the no-good failure who would die in a couple of days.

"Oh, h-hi, N-Naruto."

How embarrassing! Not only did she stutter, but she didn't even speak! She _squeaked_ like a little mouse! Squeaked, for Pete's sake!

"What'd you think of that test that stupid pervert Kakashi gave us?" he asked with a frown, going down to her level.

Wow, did her face just get hotter or was the school heater acting up again?

"Um. I-I thought it w-was okay…" she mumbled, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. That was a total lie; with all the time spent trying to ignore her stalker ghosts, she didn't get any studying done! Everything on that test was over an area she didn't get to, yet! Or, wasn't good at. Either one was bad.

Naruto pouted playfully, but a little grin managed to sneak its way onto his face as he gazed at her. "Yeah, right. Hinata, you're so modest! I bet that test was a total breeze for you, eh? Oh, gotta go, there's Sakura! Bye, Hinata! See you on Monday!"

"Oh, um. B-bye, N-Naru— "

"Oi, Sakura! Wait up!"

Another sigh. That was starting to become a habit for her. She closed her locker and slung the heavy backpack over her shoulders (by now, she was getting some muscles in carrying that thing around everywhere she went) and headed for the exit, ready to get the next mission over with. Honestly, why was she so compassionate? It was going to kill her one day!

The first step she took outside and she had noticed them already at the foot of the steps. They were the only ones a little duller in color after all; while everyone was vibrant with yellows and oranges and pinks and blue with whatever clothes they had on and skin tones they were born with, the ghosts' colors seemed to have a grayer shade to them; it looked as though they were there, but they weren't fully there.

She walked right by them without a word, but they followed as she rounded the corner and stepped into an empty alleyway where no one could see her talking to what seemed like herself.

"So, you really will help us?" The girl with red hair looked at Hinata up and down.

"Y-yes."

"It's about damn time!" the male exclaimed, and she cringed a little.

"Zaku, stop it," the prettiest one there scolded gently. "You're scaring her."

She then turned back to Hinata and beamed gratefully. "My name is Haku. The angry one here is Zaku, and this is Karin."

"N-nice to m-meet you." Hinata gave a polite and low bow, something she was accustomed to, what with her father bringing home executives and presidents of major corporations and such.

"No, it is we who should be bowing." Haku followed her example and the other two did the same (though one was rather begrudging the motion).

"Um, how-how can I help y-you to m-move o-on?"

"Her stuttering is so annoying!"

"Zaku!" Karin smacked him upside his head.

It was true though. Hinata's stammering was very aggravating; many people told her so, but what could she do about it? Nothing could be done; she tried everything known to man and she still stuttered! It was a little humiliating to have him to point it out, though, because it was the first time a dead person had told her so.

"Why don't you go first, Zaku?" Haku suggested.

Karin voiced her opinion. "Yeah, I agree with his idea."

Wait, Haku was a boy? Huh. So spirits really did come in all shapes and sizes.

The red-head nudged Zaku's side. "Go on, you big idiot. Don't be shy."

"I'm not shy!" he hissed in return, vehemently glaring at her, but she took it with a roll of her eyes.

"Hurry it up. We don't have all day!"

His eyes fell onto Hinata's tiny form, analyzing her. She was short and petite; dozens told her that she was so small that it seemed even a gentle breeze could knock her around! She knew she was the last person any ghost would want to entrust their will to, but she really was his only choice.

He scowled and folded his arms. For a while, nothing was said; the tension and awkwardness was overwhelming, and Hinata dropped her gaze, not knowing what to do or say. She was feeling quite useless, wallowing in her self-pity, but she would be patient. She would wait for as long as he needed her to, because she understood it wasn't any easy thing, asking a complete stranger to do such a personal favor.

Then, when she felt as though no one would say anything for an eternity, he opened his mouth and cracked the silence with his rough voice.

"My brother."

She looked up, waiting for his instructions.

"My brother," he said again. "His name is Dosu Kinuta. He goes to your school; he's in the eleventh grade right now."

He was starting to fade. By just speaking about it, he was starting to disappear from the legs up, passing into the next world.

"Dosu…he…" Zaku cleared his throat uncomfortably. "He thinks…he thinks that it was his…"

A pause. Hinata waited silently for him to find the right words. His legs were gone and his arms and torso were going next.

Zaku shook his head, clearing his mind from the distractions his thoughts and memories were giving him. "I want you to tell him something for me. I want you to tell him that it wasn't his fault." His voice was soft. "Tell him it wasn't his fault. It...It wasn't his fault…"

"I will." She nodded. "Rest in peace, Zaku."

The last of his body disappeared and the male was gone from the presence forever. She felt a little lonely, now that there was one less person beside her, but she hoped that he made it safely to heaven without any interruptions. He must have loved his brother a lot, for someone who acted so rude.

Karin sniffed, wiping her nose despite the fact that it was clean and not runny. "Who knew that jerk actually had a heart? Go ahead Haku. I'll go last."

"Thank you." He reached inside his kimono and pulled out a letter, handing it to her. "Take it. I've been hiding it in my body for a while now, and I can't hold onto it much longer."

She accepted it, surprised that it was solid and not missing an actual form. This was the first time a ghost had ever done something like that, that she had seen anyways. She had heard of spirits causing trouble by messing with objects, but she had never heard of one holding onto something they could barely touch. "Who is it f-for?" she asked, pushing her curiosity aside.

"His name is Zabuza Momochi; he's an inmate at Leaf Prison," he explained, his eyes taking on a rather guilty look. "I know you've probably never been there, and you probably don't want to. I'm sorry to ask something so unreasonable of you; if I had any way to deliver this myself, I would, but..."

"It's fine." Hinata smiled. "I'm not s-scared. I-I promise to d-deliver this l-letter to him. He must be a g-good person i-if you'd go t-through all o-of this trouble to hold onto t-this letter."

Frankly she was terrified. Right at that very moment she was shaking in her small shoes, but if putting on a brave front helped him pass away peacefully, then she'd be as brave as Naruto was!

"How do you know someone so crazy, Haku?" Karin asked with wide eyes. Hinata had never heard of this Zabuza person, but Leaf Prison did have a reputation of holding only the craziest of criminals.

He laughed when the two expected him to reveal a horrible and bloody past, his voice echoing as he disappeared right before their eyes, the little particles glowing and sparkling like fairy dust. "He's not crazy. He's a very special person to me."

Hinata placed her backpack on the floor and unzipped it, pulling out her main binder. She opened it up and slipped the envelope into one of its pockets, careful not to bend or rip it in any way. When it reached its destination, she wanted it to be in pristine condition, as though Haku had given it to the man himself. Was it possible for there to be good, insane criminals locked in Leaf Prison?

"I guess it's me next, yeah?"

"I-I guess so."

"Walk with me."

"H-huh?"

"Come on, let's take a walk." Karin jutted a finger down the street and started walking in that direction, not waiting for the Hyuuga as she hastily zipped up her back pack and slung it over her shoulder, running after the ghost that only she could see.

At first, they didn't say anything. The streets were still bright and hot with the sun overlooking the horizon, and people were still walking about doing their things, not even realizing the invisible soul walking side by side with Hinata. No one knew about her secret, not even her family or her friends. It was a burden that only she bore, but…she supposed she couldn't call it a burden. She liked to think of it as a gift, her ability to communicate with the dead.

Hinata wasn't really good at anything. Hell, she could screw up the most simplest of tasks. The one thing she was good at was cooking, and even then her father refused to try her dishes because of how poisonous they looked, but it still tasted good! With her knack of messing up everything she did and doing no one any good, she liked to think that helping the wandering ghosts move on without any regrets was a decent thing to do. At least she was useful to somebody. Yes, that was right. That was why she first started helping them out. The feeling of being wanted, of being needed, of making a difference in someone's life, even if it was their afterlife.

_I guess I forgot that ever since my grades started dropping._

"You're a weird girl; you know that, Hinata Hyuuga?" Karin stated out of the blue.

Hinata wasn't sure if she was to take that as a complimented and be glad, or be insulted.

"I mean, seriously, who in their right mind would take the time to help dead people? Am I right? You have a life! You have a _life_, and we don't. It doesn't matter what you do, cause, well, we're still dead, you know? We're still dead and even if we do say, 'I love you,' to that one person, it doesn't matter, because they've moved on, right? And it doesn't matter if they still love you because they have to move on, right? All of you can move on, but we can't. _I_ can't. I'm stuck. We can't go anywhere but…but…we're still looking for you, wanting you to help us when it won't even make a difference because we'll still be forgotten, still be left behind in the past where we're stuck and we can't get away and we can't go to the future where you guys will be and…" She stopped, in her words and in her tracks.

Following her gaze, Hinata saw a man with strange, white hair talking to a beautiful woman. The two were laughing without a care in the world, deeply in love as they sat across each other in a café booth. They sipped coffee from the same cup and said funny things to make the other blush.

"We were engaged," Karin murmured. She pressed her hand against the glass window, peering at the couple with a sad look in her eyes. "Supposed to be married in January on the twenty-first. His mother said that day was a lucky day to get married. How stupid!" She let out a giggle, but it sounded so far away as the rest of her body started to disintegrate like the two before her. Little golden sparkles whipped around her hair.

"The day I died was the twenty-first of January. So much for lucky, huh?"

What was Hinata supposed to say?

"I'm…I'm sorry, Karin…" Somehow, that just didn't seem like the right thing, but it was the only thing she could say.

"Don't be. He looks happy. I'm glad."

"D-don't you want me t-to tell h-him something?" she asked, glancing from the departing ghost to the white-haired man. "Tell him that you love him or t-that you're a-at p-peace?"

"It doesn't matter." Karin shook her head, her eyes glued to his form. "That ring that girl has on her finger? That was my ring." She spread her fingers in front of her, eyeing the empty married finger with almost a disdained look. "Nothing I say will make a difference." After that, she was gone. Hinata didn't even know what it was that made Karin move on. She could've seen the man any time she wanted to. She turned back to the people inside the cafe.

"It really is such a beautiful ring!" the woman squealed. "I love it so much!"

"Good. The ring is special to me."

"Oh, well, it's special to me, too!" She giggled. "When do you think we should get married? What about the twenty-first of January! That was when my grandparents got married, and they stayed together all their lives! They even died at the same time together!"

Hinata turned away from the window after that, feeling a little bad that she was eavesdropping on an engaged couple's conversation, but she felt even worse that she couldn't help Karin in any way whatsoever. Maybe she'd go and find her gravestone later, place a few flowers at the site. She wondered what her favorite was.

Lilies?

Maybe roses.

* * *

**a/n ::** And, that's it! I hope you enjoyed it. Please review, yeah? Otherwise I won't update it if no one's interested because there's really no point…

Who knows…maybe I'll even dedicate the next chapter to my first reviewer…kukuku. And yes, I'm bribing you. Is it working? Is it?

Haha, well, I'm getting tired, peeps, so good night and be careful of the biting bed bugs!

Signing off,


	2. A Business Contract

7.23.10

_Dull_

**Full Summary: **For Hyuuga Hinata, seeing ghosts is an everyday thing. They come from far and wide to seek her assistance, because she's the only one who can help them move on into the next world. When a certain deceased Uchiha Sasuke catches wind of her abilities and comes asking for her help, things begin to get stranger as she quickly realizes that he isn't a regular ghost. There's more than meets the eye to this dead guy!

Disclaimer: Yeah, so I don't own Naruto. That should be obvious though…

**a/n ::** Hehe. Thanks for the reviews, you guys; it made me very happy! And the ones that didn't review but did add my story to their alerts or favorites?—That made me happy, too. But guess what? THE QUEEN DEMANDS YOU TO REVIEW! Or, well, it would be appreciated.

But, anyways, in this chapter, Hinata finally meets Sasuke! Yay!

Oh, and before I forget, this chapter is dedicated to JamKa because you were my first reviewer! I thank you bunches because I was very excited to see the notification in my email, haha. But, not only JamKa, all of you who reviewed! You really made my day, especially because several days ago I was really angry and about to cry, and I opened it up to read a review and it made me feel a whole lot better. So, you taking precious time out of your life to tell me to update – however selfish and demanding you losers are! ;) -, I appreciate it. No, really, I do, therefore: thanks a bunches! :]

That's enough nonsense for me to spout, so, now keep on reading for the first official chapter of Dull.

And yes, Sasuke is in this one.

* * *

oo1 :: a business contract

Hinata stumbled as she hiked up the hill, almost dropping the roses – almost being the key word. With so much experience tripping over flat surfaces and actual, random objects lying on the ground, her instinct to clutch onto whatever important item she was holding onto kicked in faster than the speed of sound. Stopping in her tracks, she checked to make sure that she hadn't smothered any of the flowers against her chest. Hmm. They looked fine, so she continued her journey through the graveyard, the one place someone like her absolutely despised.

Why? Well, the cemetery was ghost central.

Piles and piles of dead bodies below her and piles and piles of spirits floating around her; it was enough to drive her insane! None of them really knew that she could speak to them; one, she rarely came close to such horrifying places, and two, most of the ghosts there were too much in shock at their sudden death or too busy crying and bawling and floundering in a sea of depression to even notice her existence, which is fine with her, frankly. Though, considering the fact of her change of heart, one would think she'd actually go telling the ghosts that she could and would help them pass onto the next world, but no. Sure, she'd help them, but she wasn't going to go out of her way and speak to every wandering soul she could find. Hinata cared for them, but she cared about her grades and her future, too! Let them come to me, she thought. Soon, rumors would spread about her anyways; the ghost community was a close knit one. Rumors traveled faster when you could walk through walls, after all. One ghost passing on wasn't that ridiculous, but three ghosts at the same time? Big news! And somebody must have seen! (- Someone dead.)

But, anyways, the whole reason she was there at the graveyard – cue the shiver – was mainly because she wanted to visit Karin's grave. Hinata hadn't really felt like she had done anything to help her pass on; not only that, but the red-head wasn't exactly in a fabulous mood when she left. It seemed to her that Karin wanted to stay longer and watch the love of her life and death, so, as a result, Hinata thought it would be best to pay her respects and give pretty roses for a pretty girl. If she had seen the ghost when she was living, she bet that Karin's hair would've been as bright as the petals, instead of a dulled red. Ah, what a beautiful color Karin had, not like Hinata's weird hair, a black that seemed to tint blue.

She paused and looked around the many tombstones, trying to locate Karin's. True, she didn't really know how to find her grave site. It wasn't as though there was some kind of directory and map, and she highly doubted that the graves were alphabetized (even if they were, she didn't know her last name) but Hinata just had a feeling. Oddly enough, she could just tell which stone was the one that belonged to her ghost friends that she had met, and it was especially stronger if they had reached their destination.

There was a tugging sensation to the west, so to the west she went, until finally…

"Good afternoon, Karin." Hinata set the flowers down. "R-remember me? I-I hope you do. How are you? I hope y-you c-crossed over s-safely. A-and oh! These roses are f-for you. Aren't they p-pretty? I-I know someone w-who owns a f-flower store."

Sitting down, she made herself comfortable before the grave, fiddling with her thumbs.

"It's a p-pretty day today," she mumbled quietly, looking up at the blue skies with white fluffy clouds. "Do you have weather i-in Heaven? W-wait…you c-can't answer. Um. T-today, my sister r-received her report c-card. All A's. She's so s-smart. I-I hope the counselor m-misplaced my r-report card…"

As Hinata looked around the graveyard, she watched the ghosts near humans to make it seem like she was watching the living and not the dead. There was one woman talking about her day; her husband laughed in response to something she said but she couldn't see or hear him. Hinata watched as he reached to touch her cheek but she kept on talking as if nothing happened, though it looked as though she felt a light breeze blowing her hair back.

Several sites in front of a Hinata, a little boy was crying about wanting to be alive in front of his grandpa who merely patted the stone gently, as though patting the boy's head. He quieted down and watched the old man silently sob.

Dropping her gaze to her hands, she stared at her long and unpainted nails, pondering. Why was it that she could see the dead but others couldn't? Why was it that she received this power? Did it mean something? Was she supposed to…change the world? Or save it? There was no one to answer her question. For all she knew she was the only one who could communicate with the dead.

"I p-pray you are doing okay, K-Karin." She traced her name with a smile. "D-did you k-know? T-that m-man? He l-lives on my s-street. I-I saw him yesterday pulling into t-the driveway, so today, I-I left a rose o-on his car for you. H-he was in the b-backyard, t-talking v-very loudly. He s-said that he comes to v-visit you the first T-Thursday of every month! S-so, I t-think you're w-wrong, Karin. I don't t-think h-he forgot you at all. I-I think you're s-still s-somewhere in his m-mind, because y-you can move on without f-forgetting, right? You can go on w-without having to let g-go of people, e-even if they're dead. Don't you think s-so? I'd l-like to think so."

A bigger grin.

"D-doesn't that m-make you happy?" she said.

From the corner of her eyes, Hinata saw movement several feet away. She sat quietly, pretending to be immersed in her thoughts while she watched the figure secretly. It was obvious that this guy wasn't part of the living; the way his colors were darker, duller, a grayer and washed out hue of what the colors used to be, there was no way he could've been alive.

The stranger bent down and mumbled the words on the tombstone.

Repositioning her legs, she made it seem like she was trying to examine her shoes, when she was actually trying to get a peek at the name that was carved onto the stone plaque.

Yahiko? Was this guy Yahiko?

Hmm.

Suddenly, he spoke, his voice irritated and frustrated.

"Goddammit!"

_Should the dead really be saying such things?_

"Where the hell is it…?" he huffed irritably and ran a hand through his hair that defied gravity at odd angles. "It's gotta be around here somewhere."

She wondered it what it was he was looking for. Should she say something? Would it help him pass on? Did she really want to get involved? He didn't seem like such a happy-go-lucky type; then again, he was dead. Hinata highly doubted that any of the spirits there were part of the Sunshine Club. Pushing that fact aside, he didn't seem to be a disheartened ghost, either. A vengeful spirit? No, he was searching for something…and he seemed kind of angry. He wouldn't lash out at her…would he?

"This one isn't it either," she heard him mutter.

Helping would be the most reasonable choice. He was a spirit that was probably in pain, and it was her duty to help him pass on.

"Um, do y-you— "

At that exact moment, her phone started to ring and her head dropped down so that she could grab her cell phone, forgetting about him quickly.

"H-hello?"

On the other side was a heavily annoyed voice. "Hinata? Where are you?"

"I-I'm a-at the c-cemetery, F-Father." She always seemed to stutter more around her dad. Maybe it was because he made her more nervous than anyone else on the planet, with his scrutinizing eyes and holier-than-thou attitude and unreachable expectations, but it wasn't his fault, she was sure.

"Get back home. We have something we must discuss." Uh oh. He was using his serious voice (which was his main voice but sterner; it seemed impossible, but it wasn't.). Only a Hyuuga who had much practice in angering her father time and time again could differentiate between the two.

"Uh…um…A-alright…"

"Alright?" he hissed into the phone.

"I-I mean, 'Y-yes, sir.'"

He hung up on her right after that and she sighed, pocketing it. Things weren't looking so hot at the moment. There wasn't any way for her to complete her mission of saving ghosts if her dad was going to kill her and make her one of them. What could she do if she couldn't speak to people and hand them letters and pass on messages? The answer was simple: absolutely nothing. If she begged for mercy, maybe he would give it to her; that was slim though. Very. Slim. There was a better chance for a fat man to fall out of the sky and crush all life as she knew it.

Getting up, she dusted the dirt off her pants only to frown when she noticed the grass stains on them. It really wasn't her day. Remembering the ghost, she looked up to where he was supposed to be only to find that he had disappeared; scanning around the graveyard didn't do anything good, for her search produced no helpful results.

Oh, well, she supposed. Hinata had bigger fish to fry at the moment. She had an appointment with the devil, and he just happened to look like her dad.

She wondered how long it would take her to get back to the Hyuuga Mansion; probably a very long time, since she walked like a turtle and the graveyard was big. Well, better get started then.

Looking around and trying to recall where it was that she had come from, she began walking in the direction she thought was right, figuring it was somewhere on that side of the cemetery (whatever 'that side' meant).

Several moments later and she became lost.

"It's getting dark," she whispered, looking up at the sky. Was it evening already? Those things up there look like storm clouds. "And there's no one at the cemetery anymore…"

No one but the dead anyways.

It actually wasn't so bad, now that she thought about it.

The skies were darkening like a scene out of a horror movie; with each passing tombstone, a thought ran through her mind that a decayed hand might shoot out of the ground beneath her and latch onto her leg like a blood-sucking parasite. It wasn't such a scary thought, though; Hinata would rather deal with zombies than an angry Hyuuga father.

As she passed by one of the gravesites, she saw that there was weed growing there.

"Now, that's not right," she mumbled, getting down on her knees to pull out the ugly plants. It took several minutes, but those several minutes were quietly calming. She didn't think about anything, and nothing ran through her mind; no worries, no problems, just a silent thought that, once the weeds were gone, it would look a lot better.

"There we go." Hinata straightened her back and ran the back of her hand across her forehead to wipe anyway any sweat. "No weeds."

She had been right; the grave hadn't looked right with the weeds devouring everything.

Her eyes darted up to the stone, cracked and rough, but standing strong against all weather and nature against it, holding up the memory of the one who died; across the horizon, there were hundreds of the same time of stone, with cracks just like that one, but each was resisting against the pressure to fall and break down. Oddly enough, she found it rather inspirational. Maybe she could be like the rocks and be strong, too.

Hinata looked back at the one in front of her, staring at the carvings.

"Mikoto Uchiha…?" she read. "That's a pretty name, Miss Mikoto."

"She was my mother."

With a gasp, Hinata whipped around to become face to face with a pair of legs hidden behind long pants. As her lavender orbs roamed upward, she met a hard, dark, onyx gaze: the same ghost she had seen before.

"I…I…uh…um…." She stumbled over her words, wanting to get away from him as far as possible. There was something about him, something about this ghost that wasn't normal. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but he had a strange feeling about him; and his eyes, so dark and deep and black.

"So,"

His voice sent shivers down her back, causing her to wince with fear. That was the first time she was ever scared of a spirit; there really wasn't much they could do but change appearance to how they looked when they died, and that was mere intimidation rather than a threat. Of course, this ghost hadn't done anything – yet – but she couldn't help but feel afraid.

Tilting his head at her, his once onyx-colored eyes seemed to flash an evil red.

"You can see me," he finished. "I had thought so."

"I…" With nothing coming to her mind, she merely nodded her head hesitantly.

He eyed her up and down, analyzing her with a cold stare, not saying a word as he did so. She fidgeted uncomfortably, finding the grass and dirt suddenly so very interesting, but the hair on the back of her neck stood up in warning.

What was he going to do? Could he even do anything? If any ghost could cause harm to a living person, she was pretty sure he'd be the most likely candidate.

"Hinata Hyuuga."

Her head rose to meet his daunting look, fear etched right onto her face.

"_You_ are supposed to be my salvation?" he scoffed skeptically. "I find that hard to believe."

She bit her bottom lip. "S…sorry…" Hinata didn't even know what she was apologizing for; it just came out of her lips on habit, but it was obvious by the irritated scowl he gave her that he did not appreciate her apology but found it annoying and quite unneeded.

He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Let's go."

When she didn't move, a brow rose in mild displeasure.

"You're lost, aren't you?" It was more of an accusation than a question, but she bobbed her head in reply.

"Y-yeah…"

"Then follow me."

"O-oh," she mumbled, and then scrambled to her feet ungracefully, brushing off the dirt on her bottom and thighs before tagging along behind him. So, he did have a heart, right? Otherwise, why would he be nice to her and show her the way out? Unless he had another plan up his sleeve, but she shook her mind free of that cynical thought. She liked to see the good things in people instead of always accusing them of evil.

"Um. Thank you," she bowed low behind him; he couldn't see it of course, but she had done it anyway.

"I'm not doing this for you," he said, glancing back at her with cold eyes.

She had no idea what he meant by that; her mouth opened, about to ask, but seeing another harsh glare sent her way as if to say that she was an annoying, little kid, she closed it and tightened her lips uncomfortably. The walk was made in silence, with no attempt at a conversation on either part.

Hinata peered at his pack with curious eyes. Her mother always said that a man's back would tell his story, and by staring at his, she could see that his was a sad tale, full of anguish and grief by the way his shoulders were tense and his back was straight as a rigid pole. She wondered quietly how her back would look, but figured the trick worked on men and not women.

The quiet was unbearable, filled with awkwardness and strain. She wanted to say something, but what? Maybe she should ask for his name; after all, it was right since he was her savior, whether his intentions honorable or not.

"E…Excuse me," she started softly, increasing her speed so that she was at his pace and next to him.

"Move. You're too close."

That cut deeply, and she resumed her original position of several feet behind him.

At that point, she wasn't sure if she could even ask for his name; he didn't seem to like her very much, and now she didn't even want to know it considering his obnoxious behavior. Anyways, he probably wasn't going to give it to her, but she didn't have much time to contemplate this possibility because he looked back and scowled at her.

"What?" he snapped.

"W-what?" she repeated incredulously and with a little fear, not knowing why he had said that.

She saw him roll his eyes and clench his jaw tight as if to refrain from saying anything meaner; Hinata wasn't sure how that was possible because he had said every mean thing she could think of in the last ten minutes.

"What were you about to say?" he retorted. Even his attempt at continuing a conversation was nasty.

She replied softly as her she fiddled and twiddled with her fingers. "I was a-about to ask f-for your n-name…"

"Is that it?" he frowned. "It's Sasuke."

Score! So he did have some kindness in him after all. You wouldn't give your name to someone you hated, right? That was just a guess, because Hinata had never hated anyone in her entire life, so she didn't know exactly the details of how that relationship worked.

"N-nice to m-meet you, S-Sasuke," she greeted. "I'm H-Hinata."

"I know."

That was a little embarrassing. She always did have a knack at saying the wrong things at the wrong time, but it was unfortunate that the one she told it to happened to be a scary ghost.

After that, no one said a word. She linked her fingers behind her back and stared down at the ground as she walked, stepping on the crunch leaves with a small smile. It was a habit she always had, a sort of hobby that started when she was younger. Hearing the crackles of the leaves breaking under her foot had a peaceful tone to it.

"What are you doing?" he asked, provoked into saying something.

She jerked with surprised, a faint blush coloring her cheeks with slight humiliation. "N-nothing."

He snorted and she made a face of discomfiture, passing by leaves but refraining from crushing them. Peeking up at him, she noticed that he was reading the stones as they walked; she turned her head and read them along with him, but she didn't recognize any of the names. Her family believed in cremation and then scattering the remains across the sea, an honorable way to go, while the branch family had their funerals in the public cemetery like the one she was currently in, something the Hyuugas looked down upon.

"Do you k-know any of t-them?" she asked, reading yet another unfamiliar name.

"No," he answered.

Finally, they reached the gate; she sighed with relief, glad that was not going to be stuck there any moment longer. Sasuke stopped right before the entrance as she stepped past the invisible line, scanning the dark horizon. Hinata felt a little terrified of walking home alone, but she had done it before so she could do it again; she'd just hurry down the street. A flash of lightning flew across the sky; she'd have to be quick and beat the rain.

Turning around to thank him, he interrupted her, "You owe me."

He crossed his arms and leaned against the metal. "I got you out, so now you help me, got it?" he said.

All he wanted was her help in moving on? He sure had a funny way of asking, but nonetheless, it was her duty and her pleasure in doing so.

"O-okay," she nodded and waited for his instructions, gazing at him dead in the eye. She saw him shift uncomfortably under her gaze, not used to her sudden boost of confidence with a rather professional air, though she didn't stop twiddling with her thumb.

"…You gonna leave or what?" he asked.

She was taken aback by his words, confused. "I…I thought you w-wanted m-my help."

"And?"

"I-I'm waiting f-for you to e-explain what you want me to d-do."

He opened his mouth but then shut it, a dark look casting a shadow on his face. The atmosphere took a hard left turn and the weather just complimented it forbiddingly, what with dark clouds and the occasional thunder and strike of lightning.

"It's not that simple." Sasuke admitted and, for the first time, it was he who dropped his eyes to the floor and wouldn't meet her gaze.

"W-what do you m-mean?"

"I'll come find you tonight," he said, ignoring her question. "We'll talk then, got it?"

"O-okay," she agreed, and the air of security that once wrapped around her evaporated and Hinata was back to her shy and timid self. "T-thank you again," she added and then rushed down the street, almost tripping over her own two feet as she rounded the corner. She was indebted to him for his act of kindness, but that didn't mean she didn't find him to be any less menacing.

"Oh, dear," she muttered as she skidded to a halt, almost slamming face first into the stop sign. She shook her head, wet hair flying left and right; it had started pouring just as she had left Sasuke's company, and it wasn't even a light drizzle but a crazy thunderstorm that pounded against her frail body. Her clothes clung to her body like clingy leeches and the water made everything that much colder when the wind hit her. Hopefully, she wouldn't catch cold because tomorrow, she was supposed to visit Leaf Prison and give the letter to a Mr. Zabuza Momochi. That was not something she was looking forward to, but she did promise and she made it a point to honor her promises.

Finally, the Hyuuga Estates came into view. A crackle of thunder overhead caused her to scream and cover her head, ducking down but nothing happened; after that, she quickly made her way into the house, fumbling with her keys on the way. Slamming the door shut behind her, she locked it and leaned against the wood, sliding down with exhaustion.

"You're late."

Opening her eyes, she met the angry gaze of her father.

"And you're getting water all over the floor."

Slowly, she looked down at herself and saw the puddle below her she had made, feeling a lot like a leaky faucet. "I-I'm s-sorry, F-Father," she whispered. "I-I g-got l-lo—"

"I don't want to hear it," he barked quietly, turning away from her.

Her eyes watered up and she suppressed a hiccup.

"And clean up this mess."

"Y-yes, F-Father…"

"When you're done, I expect you in my office."

He wasn't always like that. She could remember a time when he actually smiled, but that time was long ago.

Getting up, she made her way up the stairs, water dripping every which way, making a little path that one could follow like breadcrumbs. Hinata always told herself not to take what her father said to heart; he wasn't in his right mind. Ever since her mother died, he just…changed. But, how could she ignore what he said? He was her dad, and what he said meant a lot to her; to have him approve of her meant everything.

At least he didn't ignore her, she supposed.

Opening her door, she stepped inside and stripped of her wet clothes, throwing it in the dirty laundry basket that was filling up rather quickly; she made a mental note to go and wash them later. After putting on some fresh, warm and dry articles, she got to work on cleaning up the untidiness she had caused, quietly and efficiently working.

Hinata liked putting her hands to work. Duties such as chores did not need any complicated thinking or thought process; it was all repetitive movements that anyone could do, even a useless girl like Hinata.

She cleaned the stairs because she didn't want anyone to trip, and she cleaned the floor that she stepped upon; eventually, she just cleaned the entire living room, figuring that she might as well, and then she cleaned the entrance to the door and the door itself. Everything was sparkly clean as Hinata sat up on her knees and stared at her work; not a drop of water or a speck of dust in sight. Surely her father would say something, right?

Now that she was done, Hinata threw the rag away and washed her hands, heading into her father's office like he had asked her to. Knocking on the door, she heard the familiar grunt and turned the knob, stepping inside meekly.

"H-hello, F-father," she greeted, closing it behind her. "I f-finished."

At his desk, his fingers were folded and his face was grave, not a good sign. The only times he ever had that position and expression was when he was thoroughly angry with her, like the time she received a B in English.

Her report card! Had he received it?

"Sit," he ordered.

She did as she was told, looking at this mahogany desk because she'd rather stare at it than see his disappointed and angry face.

Mr. Hyuuga took in a deep breath and tapped his fingers together. "You failed math, Hinata," he growled out. "And your other subjects are nothing to smile about."

"I-I'm s-"

"Don't interrupt!"

Her hands flew to her mouth and she cringed. Would he hit her?

"What are you doing in school these days? Are you or are you not paying attention to the teacher? Algebra II is not hard! What did you skip geometry for? To fail and make a mockery of the Hyuuga name? WELL?" His hands slammed down on hard wood, making a loud, cackling sound; she did everything she could not to scream and to remember that he wasn't in his right mind.

"I can't even look at you right now."

Tears were threatening to spill and her heart lurched. She had let down her father, again. When was she going to do something right? When was she going to do something he could be proud of?

"Upstairs. Now."

"Y-yes, s-sir."

"Don't speak; just go."

Hinata bit her bottom lip and nodded, walking out the door and up the stairs gradually, taking in the new information. He hadn't even told her the consequences, but already she was thinking of cruel methods of punishment she should be put through. It wasn't much to ask, getting A's in everything; she had done it before, so what was different now? Oh, right, the ghosts. But, she couldn't just stop helping them. They needed her.

She supposed she could just figure out some way to balance both.

Or...drop one - no, that wasn't going to happen. Though, if her grades kept dropping, she'd have to consider it.

Stepping into her room, she closed and locked the door, leaning against it with her eyes closed.

_Mom, what do I do?_

Well, first thing was first: wash up and get ready for bed. Hinata put the event behind her, willing herself to completely forget about it until the proper time had arrived for her to decide what to do and how to fix the trouble she had made for herself. Stepping into her private bathroom to wash her face clean, she splashed water onto her face, scrubbing off the dust that was probably there from when she was cleaning the living room. Looking up into her reflection, she saw a figure behind her with glowing eyes and screamed, falling to the ground.

"Boo." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"S-Sasuke?" she squeaked with a shaky voice. "W-what are you d-doing h-here? Y-you…s-scared m-me…" Anyone would be terrified if they saw onyx eyes flashing a bloodlust red in the mirror.

"We had a deal, remember?" he sighed.

Oh, that was right, she promised to help him in return for leading her out of the graveyard. "Y-yes, I r-remember." She got up and turned off the faucet, noticing that her hands were still shaking. Taking in a deep breath to calm her speedy heart rate, she switched off the lights and grabbed the towel hanging on the rack and dabbed her face dirt-free.

"Nice place," he commented.

"T-thanks." Hinata sat on her big bed and stared at him expectantly. "H-how can I-I help you?"

His jaw tightened.

"S-Sasuke?"

He let out a breath he was holding and crossed his arms. "I'll be honest with you: I have no idea."

That wasn't right; surely he had some notion on how to pass onto the next realm.

"Do y-you want me t-to tell anything to your f-family? Or a l-loved one or your f-friends?"

"I…don't know…"

"Don't you h-have any r-regrets?"

"I don't know."

He kept saying that as if…

"What do you mean, you d-don't know?" she asked, puzzlement marring her pale face. She brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and blinked at him, not at all afraid now that he wasn't glowering at her with hatred and aggravation.

"I can't remember anything." Sasuke confessed, an emotion other than irritation flashing through his eyes before her expertly repressed it.

"But, y-you told m-me your name," she pointed out.

"I can remember a few details, but that's about it," he corrected.

She didn't even know a ghost could get amnesia, but that was beside the point. How was she going to help him if he had nothing for her to work with? She voiced her question and he shook his head.

"That's not true." Sasuke took a seat on her floor rather than her chair; for one thing, he probably didn't have enough energy to pull it out. "I know my name, and I know my mother and father's name."

"S-so…what d-do you w-want me to d-do?" If he didn't know what it would take for him to move on peacefully, there was really nothing for her to do but leave him alone. There were other ghosts that needed her aid, and although it didn't sit well with her ditching him, what could so do?

"Help me," he replied, and he looked quite embarrassed about asking her for assistance, too, because his head tilted downward, cheeks a little flushed. It was obvious he didn't do it often; even when he couldn't remember anything, the habits and instincts were still there. "I need someone on the living world who has resources I can't reach."

"R-resources?"

"Yeah, books, the internet, rumors and gossips, people in general. I can eavesdrop but that's about it."

She allowed the idea to sink in. If she helped him by finding information, she could, at the same time, lend a hand to other ghosts, too, since his was a long term goal. Hinata dropped down on her bed, lying on her back as she stared up at the ceiling. She felt useful. Her only talent and only ghosts could appreciate her; why couldn't her father see this?

"And…since, it's more of a business contract, if you need me to do anything, I'll do it. We've got a deal, Hinata Hyuuga?"

He was still scary, but…

"Okay. It's a deal."

* * *

**a/n ::** You know, I always did have a hard time writing in Hinata's point of view. I'm just a lot better at Sasuke's, so sorry if this chapter was a little…weird. Maybe I'll pick up my own Hinata somewhere along the way (hopefully, soon).

Anyways, please be a dear and review, yeah?

Thanks for reading!

Signing off,


	3. All In A Day's Work

7.23.10

_Dull_

**Full Summary: **For Hyuuga Hinata, seeing ghosts is an everyday thing. They come from far and wide to seek her assistance, because she's the only one who can help them move on into the next world. When a certain deceased Uchiha Sasuke catches wind of her abilities and comes asking for her help, things begin to get stranger as she quickly realizes that he isn't a regular ghost. There's more than meets the eye to this dead guy!

Disclaimer: Yeah, so I don't own Naruto. That should be obvious though…

**a/n ::** Hey guys, because of the wonderful reviews and how excited I was to write this chapter, I wrote it straight away once I posted up the first one! Again, your wonderful reviews make me smile and I'm so glad you don't hate Hinata! She's getting a little easier to write, just a little, but you know, taking small steps eventually lead you to your destination.

Anyways, in this chapter, Hinata and Sasuke meet Mr. Zabuza Momochi, the crazy criminal inside Leaf Prison!

But they don't know he's just a big, fluffy bunny inside haha. ;)

Well, moving along, read on to meet the big, fluffy bunny!

Oh, wait, before that, if you guys have any questions as to what's taking a chapter so long for me to write and update, you should check my profile. I'll try and keep you guys up-to-date as to what's going on in my life if it's becoming an obstacle for me to write and whatnot, so there are your answers! Not to mention, I'll start putting up ideas to new stories that I might write, which I do have a little plot fox running around in my head at the moment for a sasuhina story (which I'm currently working on; it's called Stand; check out the details in my profile!) and a narusaku one (i have no idea where this is going or how it's going to work or how to start it; I just know that I want it done!).

Okay, NOW you can read!

* * *

oo2 :: all in a day's work

"What are you doing here, little girl?" Mr. Zabuza Momochi asked, leaning forward in his seat. "You should be tucked away in your bed with your mommy and daddy. In a place like this, the monsters will eat you, you know."

"Tch." Beside her Sasuke scoffed, annoyed that he had to accompany her on her little expedition. "Who is this guy?" he snorted.

"I-I'm here on b-behalf of Haku," she said softly.

"Haku, eh?" Suddenly, he slammed against the thick glass that separated them, the loud and alarming noise and action shocked her into falling over and out of her chair, letting out a yelp in the process. "Don't speak of his name so casually to me, girl," he growled. "Or I'll rip your head off."

Abruptly, a couple of Leaf officers – nicknamed Ninjas – pinned him back down, giving him a couple of punches to forcefully cool his head down. She winced and cringed, looking away as he grunted and spat out blood, muttering curses under his breath. Zabuza was warned that if he made another stupid move like that, they'd put him in solitary and Ibiki would visit him frequently and painfully – whoever that guy was, he sounded scary.

The criminal wiped the droplets of red off his chin and turned back to Hinata. "Enjoyed the show?" he asked offhandedly, though there did seem to be an underlying hostile tone to his question that did not slip past her awareness.

Karin really wasn't exaggerating when she had remarked on how crazy Zabuza was; the guy was an absolute nutcase! She told herself to calm down and take a few deep breaths, inwardly reminding herself that he couldn't hurt her because the Leaf Ninjas were there and they were trained professionals who wouldn't let anything happen to her. It was all for Haku's sake, after all.

"Hey, Hinata, hurry up," Sasuke said, shifting his weight to his other feet edgily.

"Mr. M-Momochi—"

"Call me Zabuza."

She gulped at the way his eyes were so intense and brutal; it was as if he was a predator watching its prey carefully, waiting for the right moment to attack and rip her spleen out. Suppressing a shiver, she pushed the thought out of her mind and started again.

"Z-Zabuza," Hinata tried, and he tilted his head in response. "H-Haku—"

He leaned forward in his chair, his face mere centimeters from the glass that suddenly did not seem so protective anymore.

"Watch your mouth," he snarled quietly.

"H-he was my friend, t-too." Her hands clenched onto the end of her hard, wooden chair, keeping herself immobile and securing that she would not run away. This had to be done, even if she was like a little goldfish and he was a hungry shark.

Zabuza paused, allowing her words to sink in. She met his gaze hesitantly, but held it there once their eyes locked, and he leaned back and resumed his original, non-threatening position; it seemed that what she said seemed to work because he wasn't trying to break the glass and eat her.

"Friend, eh?" he mused.

"Y-yes." She offered a small smile. "H-he was a very g-good f-friend."

"I never once considered him a friend, you know," the man announced, looking at the dirt underneath his fingernails. "He was more of a…tool to be used and thrown away."

Hinata's small turned into a frown as she listened to what he was saying so indifferently; it was heartbreaking, honestly. How could he say such things about Haku, who stayed on earth as a wandering ghost, carrying a letter in his body when it was just so hard to pick it up? Were they talking about the same person? Was this the Zabuza Momochi she was supposed to speak to? The way Haku spoke of him with such a kind and gentle smile on his face, surely he couldn't be talking about this man who didn't even care about him!

"Enough of my rambling," he interrupted, turning dark eyes onto her. "What brings you here, girl? He died several years back, you know."

She dropped her gaze and shook her head. "N-never mind. I-I think I-I have the w-wrong person."

"What are you talking about?" he snickered. "There's only one Zabuza Momochi."

"You can't b-be him."

"And why is that?"

"B-because you don't even c-care about Haku," she replied quietly. "Y-you never even once s-said his name t-this entire conversation. W-when Haku spoke about you, h-he was very h-happy, and he e-even defended your name. I felt s-sorry for you b-because I knew you h-had to be a good p-person even though y-you were stuck here in L-Leaf P-Prison, but m-maybe I went t-to the wrong p-place and a-asked for the wrong person."

Silence.

He seemed to see her in a new light as he studied her.

"I-I'm sorry to t-take u-up your t-time," she apologized, bowing. "I-I'll b-be l-leaving now."

"Sit," Zabuza commanded. "You've got the right person. I know H…I know Haku."

She placed her hands on the table that was painted a pitiful purple; it was connected to his side, too, the glass set in the middle with a small hole to slide things over and for them to hear each other.

"You've got some balls to be saying that, girl."

"S-sorry."

"No," he waved it aside. "That's a good thing. Here I was thinking you were just a kid with a stupid stutter. Didn't know you had it in you. Now, what brings you here? You can't possibly have come to talk about him; because I'll tell you: that'd be a waste of time. Haku was a good kid with a pretty face, but he's done some things in his life that you couldn't even imagine."

"I think w-we've made a l-lot of mistakes," she said. "B-but I'm s-sure that a-anyone who can t-talk about a person w-with that kind o-of f-face isn't that b-bad."

"You mean anyone who can talk about a person like me?" A bark of laughter was released, not at all happy melody; it sounded as if someone was dragging their nails across the board; beside her, she saw Sasuke twitch with annoyance and pain.

Leaning over, she picked up the binder on the floor and placed it on the table, opening it up and taking out the letter that was perfect and not ruined in any way. Closing her binder, she dropped it back down on the floor tenderly, and showed him in the letter before sliding it across the opening. He reached for it, taking it in his hands lightly, as though he was afraid his dirty fingers would soil it.

"There's no name," he stated, looking back at her for confirmation.

"H-he didn't w-write it."

"How do you know it's for me?"

"H-Haku told me so."

"Really now?"

Hinata tensed, waiting for him to ask what she meant; she had never told anyone about her secret before, but if Zabuza asked her, and if it would make him believe that the letter really was from Haku, she may have to spill everything; but he never asked. Several minutes, and all he did was examine the envelope, gazing at how white it seemed. There were no ink stains and no fingerprints; it was just a perfect white, like the snow that fell outside, untainted and chaste.

"There's a l-letter inside."

Maybe he wouldn't ask. Maybe he just didn't care, or maybe, he actually had a really big heart under all that scariness. She could see what Haku saw in him.

He opened the envelope and took out said letter, gently unfolding it to read the graceful handwriting quietly to himself.

Silence as seconds and minutes ticked by while no one said a thing.

Hinata watched respectfully as, behind the letter, she could see that his face scrunched up into something sad, something pathetic and something funny and happy and something tear-jerking, too. She could hear him muffle his screams and sobs and regrets; she could hear him want to be where Haku was, but believe himself to only end in the opposite result. She could see a lot of things, but said nothing.

When he put refolded the paper, he placed it back inside the envelope and gazed at Hinata; his face was devoid of any emotion.

She bowed. "Thank you."

"For what?" he asked gruffly.

"For reading it." Hinata smiled and gathered her belongings, about to leaved; she got up from her chair and bowed once more to him, and, to her surprise, he bowed down at her, too.

"Z-Zabuza?"

"You're a good kid," he said. "Thanks for the letter."

It just didn't seem right, leaving things the way they were so she wrung her fingers behind her back in fear of him rejecting her proposal as she asked, "C-can I c-come visit you a-again?"

He stopped at the door, the Leaf Ninjas waiting impatiently. Without looking at her, he replied, "If you come back still stuttering like an idiot, I'll kill you." He disappeared through the entrance after that, and Hinata stood there beaming, knowing that it was his way of saying a yes.

* * *

"He was an interesting character," Sasuke said as they left Leaf Prison several feet behind them. He stretched his arms and then shoved them into his pockets, staring around at the trees and buildings and people as though he hadn't seen them in forever.

"I l-liked him," Hinata said. "H-he seemed v-very nice."

"That wouldn't be a word I'd pick, but sure."

She looked up at the sky with a beam, wondering if Haku had seen his letter being delivered, being read by the person he cared for most in the world. She wondered if he felt happy, and he probably did. Hinata felt proud of herself, and she allowed the joyful sensation to spread through her veins, something she didn't always feel. It was a good feeling.

"W-we did g-good, Sasuke."

"I didn't do anything," he scoffed, trying to kick a pebble but to no avail. "It was all you."

At that, her grin grew bigger.

"You weren't half bad in there…for a useless duck."

"T-thank you…?" Hinata found herself giggling a little under her breath, not sure whether to take his compliment or not. What kind of person called the other a useless duck when trying to say something nice? Apparently, Sasuke; she had a few things to teach him about flattering remarks, then.

There was still something that was bugging her though: that day at the cemetery when she had first seen him and he hadn't noticed her. What was he searching for that made him so frustrated? She voiced her question and noted that he tightened anxiously, a subject that he didn't seem to feel comfortable discussing.

She wanted to tell him to forget about it and that it didn't matter, but what if it did? What if she could find it for him, or what if it was some sort of clue to who he was?

"I was looking for my gravestone," he mumbled finally.

"Y-your gravestone?"

"When you die, you wake up beside it. But, for me, I woke up in the middle of Main Street, with all these living people around me, walking by and not even noticing. Yesterday, I had been reading the stones because I was looking for one with my name on it."

"Oh…" she said softly. "D-did you find i-it?"

"No."

With that one-word answer, Sasuke stopped talking completely and started to brood in silence. The walk home was a little awkward, and though she tried to get some conversations going, he didn't want to participate and shot them down very quickly, even going so far as to send her a glare and mutter, 'stupid duck,' under his breath. Taking a mental note that the mystery around his death was not a ice-breaking topic and that she should only ask if she really needed to, Hinata unlocked the door and stepped inside.

"I-I'm home," she said, but no one replied. She was sure her sister was home, and her father was probably out on some business thing, but even if they were both home, they wouldn't have replied. She didn't even know why she still announced her arrival.

Entering her room, she closed the door behind her and set her binder down as she sat on her chair, opening her math textbook and workbook. If she was to pull up her grade, she needed to get started on studying right away. Five hours would do it. Any longer and Hinata would fry her brain and all that hard work would be for naught!

"What are you doing?" Sasuke finally said.

"S-studying," she replied, flipping the page to some complicated-looking algebra ii problems. She almost sank in her chair and died.

"…What do you expect me to do? Wait for you to finish?"

How selfish! She hadn't even thought about him. Feeling slightly guilty, Hinata turned her head and thought of a solution that wouldn't bore him for five hours.

"Um…g-go explore?" she suggested. At his face, she knew right away he thought it was a dumb idea. "I-I'm sorry, but I r-really n-need to study b-because I'm f-failing math. Uh…u-um…Y-you can do whate-whatever you want, b-but please d-don't cause a-any trouble. The Hyuuga M-Mansion is very big; t-there may b-be something i-interesting you haven't seen."

He scowled at her, not liking her offer but rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Fine," he spat sourly. "I'll try not to jump out and scream 'boo.' But, for that, you owe me."

"O-okay, I'll buy you i-ice c-cream or whatever y-you want." She nodded in agreement, happy that he wasn't going to sit around and watch her work; that'd be too much pressure and she'd crack and break down, most likely.

"Do I_ look _like a living eight-year-old boy to you?" he asked touchily, and then disappeared through the wall.

Hinata sighed, dropping her head onto her desk. Why was it that he was so difficult to get along with? She usually didn't have that much of a problem talking to people; it wasn't as if her stuttering made her handicapped or unsociable or something. Even the creepy teaching Orochimaru got along a-ok with her, but why was Sasuke so…? She couldn't even think of a word to describe him and their relationship. All she knew was that they seemed to be grating on each other's nerves without even trying.

But…whatever.

She really needed to start studying, and thinking about Sasuke and how much he hated her was not going to help her ace the next test. Plus, math wasn't her only problem; there were still her other six subjects she was lacking in, and then there was the upperclassman she was supposed to talk to for Zaku! Hinata had a hard time being in a tenth grade class when she was only in ninth grade; how was she supposed to talk to someone in the eleventh grade without fainting or making a full of herself? Ugh. This was a problem.

Problems! Right, math, math.

_Focus._

* * *

Hinata jumped up in surprise as Sasuke dropped through the ceiling and landed down in front of her with the grace of a ghost.

"You have got to stop doing that," he deadpanned, thoroughly annoyed with her jumpiness.

"S-sorry." Hinata stammered, trying to slow down her heart rate. Even though it was his fault that he kept popping out of nowhere and startling her, she still apologized; the habit was integrated in her so deeply that it was almost disturbing! She picked up her fallen pencil and placed it beside her textbook and swiveled around to face him on her spinning chair.

He rolled his eyes and took a seat on her bed. It looked to Hinata that he was starting to get fond of it, despite the fact that he probably couldn't feel the soft covers and the feather pillows her mother had gifted her on her sixth birthday.

"W-what's u-up?" she asked.

"I found something in your attic."

"M-my attic?" Frowning, she thought of the last time she was up there; nothing but junk was in the attic. It was the storage room for rubbish and garbage, things they had no need for anymore but couldn't throw out, so as a solution they would just shove them into the boxes and leave them in the loft for years to catch nothing but dust and the lonely feeling of being forgotten.

"Yeah."

"W-what did you find?"

He shrugged, scowling. "I couldn't pick anything up," he muttered darkly. "But, I managed to knock the box over. There's a weird pendant in there; the jewel was black at first but when I got closer, it glowed red. Nothing happened after that."

"Do y-you w-want me to c-check it o-out?" Hinata asked; her curiosity was now at its peak. She had never seen or heard about any pendant like that being in the Hyuuga family's hands, but then again, there were probably a lot of things they stowed away that she hadn't realized.

"Why else would I tell you?" The look he gave her made her feel very stupid and she blushed, embarrassed.

"Uh…r-right." Standing up, she made her way to the door and opened it, gasping when she saw Hanabi standing in the entrance with her arms folded and a foot on tapping the floor impatiently, an eyebrow raised in question.

"Who are you talking to in there?" Hanabi pressed. For a ten-year-old girl, she was very nosy.

"I'm n-not talking to a-anyone," Hinata lied, her voice hiking up a notch. "I-it's j-just me. Maybe you m-misheard."

"You're lying," Hanabi accused. "Your voice gets higher every time you lie." She pushed past her older sister and looked around her room; little did she know, she had passed by Sasuke at least three times. "Hmm…"

"S-see?" Hinata said, clearing her throat a couple of times until it was back to its normal tone. "There's n-no one h-here…"

Her little sister gave the older Hyuuga a sharp glance before storming out, irritated that she couldn't find the answers she was seeking.

Hinata closed the door to her room and watched as Sasuke slipped right through it as though it wasn't even there.

"Interesting sister," he commented.

She said nothing for fear that Hanabi was still eavesdropping.

He led the way to her attic, figuring that she didn't know where it was; he had guessed right. She had only been up there once and that was when she was a young girl and her mother was still alive; after that, she stayed away from the grimy, top floor.

When he stopped in front of a door and stepped aside for her to grab the knob, she twisted it open and peered at the steps leading up to storage. Hinata found a light switch and turned it on, heading deeper into the attic after closing the door behind her. There were cobwebs in corners and dust flew with every step she took; coughing, she used her hand to try and fan it away from her but that didn't work. By the time she reached the last step, she was covered in filth and looked so disgusting that even Sasuke cracked a small smirk in amusement.

"Over here," he said, pointing to the fallen box that he had knocked over.

Right away, she noticed the pendant, black and flashing a red, just like his eyes. How strange. Bending down, she picked it up and immediately, the jewelry flashed a lavender color that matched her eyes. She fell back on her bottom in surprise.

"Oh!" she yapped, wincing.

"Klutz," he muttered.

Deciding that ignoring him was for the best, she wiped the away the dust and gazed into the abyss of the gem. Inside, she could see swirls of lavender and red, swirling about separately; how strange. It was so beautiful. The crystal was about an inch in diameter, and surrounding it was some sort of metal design on a golden chain. It looked old and ancient, but there was a brilliant and quiet exquisiteness to it. Gently, she put it on, her head fitting perfectly through the loop; beside her was a long mirror that used to be in her room so she used to it look at her reflection with the accessory on.

"It's so…" she whispered, gazing at the rock.

"Tacky?"

"I-it's n-not t-tacky!" she argued, turning around to face him; because he had been leaning over her shoulder, though (for a good look at the necklace), she had hit him in the process of whipping around. He groaned and fell back and she gasped with shock and guilt, scuttling to his side to make sure he was okay. "Oh, my gosh! I-I'm so s-sorry! I d-didn't m-mean t-to—"

He cupped his chin where she had decked him with her hard head, staring at her in astonishment. "You just hit me…!"

"I-I know, I-I'm s-so sorry! D-does it h-hurt? I-I can get y-you s-some i-ice!"

"No, Hinata, you just—" Sasuke grabbed her hands to stop her from flailing about with distress and possibly knocking something over and injuring herself. "You just _hit_ me, a dead guy." They both paused, suddenly realizing what had happened in such a fast instant. He was actually holding her hands and she had accidentally smacked him.

"W-what's g-going o-on?" she asked, staring at him. Immediately, Hinata took a good look at his colors, seeing him as if for the first time; he wasn't dulled. His colors were bright and vibrant, just like a person of the living, but…but he wasn't alive. He was dead. So, how could it be that…?

"You're not dulled!" the two said at the same time. "_I'm_ not dulled? What?"

"Wait, you see me dulled?" he asked.

"Y-you see me d-dulled, too?"

"Yeah, though not anymore," he mumbled, furrowing his eyebrows, trying to solve the mystery. His eyes landed on the jewelry and a light bulb clicked in his head. "It's the necklace."

She looked down at it, once again getting lost in the two dazzling shades twirling in the endless black. "The n-necklace…" she repeated inaudibly, taking it off. Not a second later, Sasuke disappeared; she straightened her back and looked around the attic, finding nothing but old webs and a lot of dust. "S-Sasuke?"

No answer. He wasn't in the attic.

"T-this isn't f-funny…"

She got up and looked around, peeking behind things to check if he was hiding from her; she wasn't afraid of monsters since she dealt with ghosts on a daily basis, but that didn't mean Hinata enjoyed it when someone jumped out and tried to scare her. Still, after all her hard work, Sasuke was nowhere to be found.

Unexpectedly, his upper body flew through the floor, his face looking very displeased as the rest of his body climbed through and onto solid ground. Her eyes were wide with surprise after witnessing the sudden event; so he hadn't been hiding.

"_That_ was _not_ fun!" he snarled heatedly.

"W-what happened?"

"I fell through the floor, that's what happened!"

"B-but, h—"

"The damn necklace obviously!" he said, eyes hard and livid with anger. It must've not been a very enjoyable experience, falling through floors involuntarily.

She thought for a couple of seconds longer until realization dawned on her. The gem made it so that, when she was wearing it, Sasuke was living again—or rather, he was solid. When she took it off, he lost his form and, while his spirit was adjusting to the change, he was unstable and would fall through the floor. Hinata raised the pendant up and stared at it in a new light; what kind of magical device was this? Whose was it? How did it get into the Hyuuga's hands?

Scrambling toward the box, she lifted it right-side up and stared at the name hastily scribbled on it.

"Irihi Hyuuga," she read. "My grandmother."

"Why would your grandmother have something like that?" She could hear him straining to keep his voice in check.

"I don't know," she replied, wondering about it herself. Placing the necklace down in front of Sasuke, Hinata turned to the things on the floor that had spilled out when he knocked the box over earlier. "W-watch t-this for m-me."

"Right, because it's going somewhere."

She ignored his remark, getting used to his sass and figuring it to be part of his personality.

Flipping through the things on the floor, Hinata picked up a few pictures of her grandmother when she was younger, looking like a real princess with her traditional Hyuuga hair, long and sleek and blacker than a raven's feathers; though the photo was black and white, she could guess that her grandmother's eyes were like hers, a pale, lavender tinge that was as strange as eye colors could get.

"She was gorgeous," Hinata whispered, showing Sasuke the picture and then setting it aside in another pile where she placed the other photos.

A couple minutes of sifting through the items and she found a worn-out journal, custom-made it seemed like, for at the front, someone had stitched Irihi. "Look, I-I found her journal."

She slid it toward Sasuke for him to 'hang onto' while she placed everything else back into the box. When that was done, Hinata took the necklace and the journal and exited the attic with a ghost following close behind.

"Hanabi!" she said in surprise when she saw her sister outside of her room.

"Hinata!" Hanabi blinked innocently, closing the door to her sister's chambers. "I didn't see you there."

"W-what are you d-doing?"

"Snooping around," Sasuke replied. He walked through the walls and reappeared several seconds later in between the sisters. "Looks like she was searching for something; everything moved was place back as close to its original position as humanly possible. Someone like you wouldn't have noticed."

"Nothing," her little sister replied harmlessly. "I was just…looking for the shirt I lost. You know. The green one with the little teeth hitting each other?"

"But," she frowned. "I d-don't borrow your c-clothes, H-Hanabi. I can't e-even f-fit them. It's n-not in m-my room."

"Oh, yeah, well, I figured that out after checking out your closet. Sorry for bother you, big sister."

Hinata watched her sibling turned the corner, whistling an unfamiliar tune; what could Hanabi be searching for in her room to make her lie about it? Considering Hinata now had two important pieces in her hands, she had to hide it in a safe place so that her nosy sister wouldn't find it and be suspicious.

Entering her room, she locked the door behind her.

"What w-was she l-looking for?"

"Dunno," Sasuke answered. "Whatever it was, she didn't find it."

"W-what do you t-think I should do?" She wasn't doubting her sister or accusing something evil; it wasn't as though Hanabi being annoyingly prying was something that had never happened before. The girl was always inquisitive about Hinata's life, but she had never gone so far as to raid her room before. That part scared her a little.

"Be careful."

"B-but…she's m-my sister. I-I can trust her, c-can't I-I?"

He shrugged, taking a seat on her rolling chair because she had forgot to swivel it back into position. "She's _your_ sister, like you said. You tell me. I'm just saying to be a little cautious; it wouldn't hurt. Anyways, we don't know what we're dealing with here."

"G-good t-thinking," she nodded and flopped down on her comfy bed. Crossing her legs 'Indian style,' she opened the book to the first page where a woman had neatly written Irihi Hyuuga—the woman who wrote it was probably her grandmother.

She flipped to a random page, not wanting Irihi's life story at the moment; maybe someday, but at the moment, she really needed information on the necklace. But, there was something more that she was searching for: she wanted to know if her grandmother had the same gift as she did. Could Irihi Hyuuga also see ghosts?

_September 23__rd_

_It seems that—_

"Read it aloud," Sasuke interrupted impatiently, crossed that she had kept it to herself.

"Oh, r-right, sorry." She started again at the beginning, but this time, voicing out the words. "S-September 23rd. I-it s-seems that _Fushin has been suspicious of my strange activities. He's been keeping a close eye on me, despite my reassuring him that I am merely visiting the grave because I like it there. I tell him it is calm and peaceful, and that I enjoy the presence of the dead, though he doesn't take it literally._

"_Everything is true, of course; maybe I keep a few things from him, but I do go there because it is quite tranquil and the spirits are very comforting. They are much easier to deal with than the living, with their complex drama making a mountain out of a molehill. I cannot stand them!"_

That was the end of that entry. She paused in her flipping the page, staring at the words 'dead' and 'spirit' with wide eyes.

Her grandmother was like her.

She could see them, too! She could see ghosts!

"Keep reading," Sasuke urged; she could hear how ticked he sounded.

"O-okay," Hinata said, turning a few pages gently so as to not rip it. "_November 17__th__. Yuri says that the necklace was a family heirloom. According to the Haruno legend, one night, a strange man came upon the household. It was raining very hard that hour, and would continue to do so until dawn; so, he asked if he could stay awhile, and the Harunos, being a very kind and gentle clan, agreed._

"_Though they did not have much food, they gave him dinner. Though they did not have space to spare, they gave up a room for him. Though they did not have enough warmth, they sacrificed a blanket. Very grateful for their hospitality, he decided to gift them a necklace a wandering monk and priest had blessed. He said that this necklace had very special powers and would be of use to someone with hair like the midnight sky and eyes like stars, and that they should hold onto it. After that, he left and they never heard from him or of him again."_

"That must be the necklace that we have, then…!"

"_Yuri says that my hair is black like the midnight sky—which she believes to be tinted blue as well—and my eyes are like stars, so she gave it to me, saying that I was its rightful owner."_

"Do you t-think so?"

"It has to be." Sasuke frowned, his mind poking upon topics and ideas and theories that she couldn't even begin to guess. Waiting for him to say something, he merely snapped back to reality and gazed at her, a signal that he was ready for her to continue.

"_December 30__th__. This necklace has strange properties that I have not stumbled upon until a while ago. While wearing this necklace, a ghost I met and agreed to help suddenly materialized and had a solid body. Everyone could see and interact with him, though when he walked more than five feet away, he returned to his original ghost form and would fall through the floor until his body stabilized._

"_It seems that this necklace is able to return a ghost back to the way he was when he was alive, but its effects are only in activation when the subject is near the owner. Though I don't understand why it suddenly started up now, when I've met with dozens of other spirits before him. It should also be noted that, so far, he was the only one who could activate its effects; the other ghosts I've spoken to have not been able to produce the same results, no matter how close they were."_

"So, it doesn't work for all ghosts, and five feet is the limit, huh?" Sasuke repeated, tapping his finger soundlessly against the cushion of her chair. "Tight leash… What else does it say?"

Hinata flipped to the next pages and scanned it, looking for anything useful. "O-oh! She never f-figured out why it o-only worked with specific ghosts. I-it looks like it'll only w-work if the ghost d-doesn't remember anything, b-but she said t-that she met plenty of g-ghosts with amnesia and the n-necklace d-didn't trigger. The t-two ghosts that initiated it d-didn't have anything else i-in common that s-she could find, besides the fact she n-never managed to figure out the mystery a-and put them t-to rest."

If Sasuke was the type to show emotions, she was sure she would've seen his face pale considerably, but he wasn't the type; therefore, he remained emotionless even with the gloomy and bleak news.

"D-don't worry," Hinata said quickly.

He glared at her callously. "I'm not worried."

"G-good," she squeaked under his intimidating stare, but pressed forward. "B-because I-I'll keep my promise."

He ignored her words and asked her if there was anything else in the diary.

"U-um…n-no. Not that I could f-find." Hinata shook her head. "It l-looks like there was someone after the necklace, b-but after t-that entry, she didn't write anything else."

"Someone after the necklace?" he mused, pursing his lips as he thought. His eyes shifted back to her and the jewel sitting beside her, harmless and not at all dangerous, but it seemed that it could come with a few enemies. "Like I said, be careful."

"Y-yes."

"Your grandma didn't seem to fully understand the potential of the gem, so let's figure it out ourselves."

"D-do you think w-we can do that? I-if Grandmother Irihi c-couldn't u-understand it, h-how can we?"

"Are you always like this?" Sasuke asked suddenly, narrowing his eyes in exasperation.

She tensed and felt her face heat up. "L-like w-what?" Hinata shifted uncomfortably, rubbing the side of her arm as though he was tearing away her layers to poke at her insides and tell her all the faults she had.

"Like…annoying." He finished with a scowl.

"Um…u-uh…"

"Never mind," he sighed. "Just… Have a little faith. Get a backbone or something. You're more cynical than I am…"

"S-sorry…" she mumbled.

"And another thing: stop apologizing! God, it's so annoying!"

"O-oh! U-um, s—"

A hard look and she closed her mouth.

"That's a start." Sasuke nodded.

She supposed he wasn't that bad. Maybe he was poking her insides, but he certainly wasn't making fun of all her faults; that, she was thankful for.

Anyways, he was probably right; there was a good chance she was more pessimistic than he was, but hearing him say those words, hearing him tell her that her stutter was annoying and that she needed a little more faith, instead of insulting and humiliating her like it usually would, she felt a little hope. It made her feel like it wasn't impossible and that she _could_ help him move on to the next world and unravel the secrets of the pendant. For once in her life, Hinata felt…encouraged by someone else. It was a very good feeling, too; no wonder she was always craving it.

"Alright, now let's figure out how this thing works."

Hinata slipped it over her head and at once, he materialized.

"So, you really do have to be wearing it." he said to himself, staring at his hands in front of him like he was seeing them for the first time, like they weren't his own. Sasuke kept quiet, something she was not used to, and stood up. Hinata eyed him carefully, curious. He sat back down and swiveled in the chair until he was facing her desk where he placed tender hands onto it, as though he was afraid that it would break if he pressed down too hard. He took in a deep breath and leaned his head back, a calm expression gracing his features.

"S-Sasuke?" she said timidly, and the strange look was broken when he opened his onyx eyes to gaze at her. "Sor—a…are you okay?"

"Yeah," he muttered, sitting up. "I'm okay. It's just…"

"I understand," she told him kindly, giving a small smile for support. "It's nice, to be a-able to touch things a-again, huh?"

"Yeah," he concurred softly. "It is nice." His hand swept over the paper and down the many drawers that held all of her writing utensils and papers that had been graded and passed back. "You don't know how nice it really is…"

She wasn't sure if she was supposed to hear the last part, but nevertheless, she had nothing to say. Hinata couldn't really comprehend what it was like to be a ghost, to have all of these wonderful things around you and not be able to touch them, not being able to feel the wind in your hair or the sun on your face or the rain in your hands, to not be able to talk to someone for a long, long time, and to watch the one you loved love someone else.

"Hold on…" Sasuke paused, his eyes clenching tight.

"W-what's wrong?"

"Shh!" He held a finger up to silence her and, as though controlled, she pressed a finger to her puckered mouth to keep it shut.

"Can you hear that?"

...Was it okay to talk now?

"H-hear what?" she whispered through her finger.

His eyes tightened and his frown deepened. "That beeping noise…"

Closing her eyes, Hinata kept her index finger pressed to her lips as she strained her ears to hear the sound he was listening to, but she could hear nothing but their breaths as they inhaled and exhaled and the sound of her clock, ticking away as time flew by.

"I c-can't h-hear it," she said finally. "A-are you sure you h-hear a b-beeping n-noise?"

"No, I'm just making it up for the hell of it," he hissed.

"S-sorry…"

"You're doing it again."

"Oh, s-sorry—I mean…!"

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Never mind; just forget—…What are you doing?"

The finger was still pressed to her mouth and she stared blankly at him, not understanding what the problem was. "W-what do you mean?" she asked, blinking a couple of times. "I-I'm not d-doing anything."

"Why are you doing this?" He copied her position, looking just as stupid as she did, though for some reason, he could still look cool doing it.

"I thought—y-you said…um…" Rapidly, she dropped her hand and sat on it, looking away, embarrassed. "I was j-just…trying t-to keep q-quiet…" Why couldn't she do even that normally?

She heard him muffle a snort and she glanced at him, making a face of slight shame and horror. Why was it that she always seemed to make a fool of herself somehow someway?

Hinata decided to change the subject away from her and back to him and his little dilemma; hearing a sound that others couldn't, even if he was dead, was not a good thing. "Is it still there? T-the b-beeping noise?"

All humor drained from his face as he nodded. "Yeah. Did it say anything in the journal?"

"N-not that I s-saw, but I'll s-start reading it l-later."

Sasuke noted the look on her face and rolled his eyes, adding, "I'm not going crazy."

"I-I never s-said you were…!" she said defensively.

"You didn't need to. It was on your face, stupid duck."

She blushed and huffed, folding her arms over her chest as her cheeks heated up. He didn't need to go so far as to call her an idiot; it wasn't as if it was a dumb idea or anything. The theory was possible, that was for sure! If anyone heard beeping noises in their head, then one would automatically think of how high the chances of being insane were, not that it was a bad thing or anything. It was a natural response.

"Stop contemplating it."

Was he a mind-reader?

Swiftly, the doorknob jiggled and the two of them turned toward it, panicked. Hinata staggered off the bed in surprise (something that she was prone to doing, as one could now tell) and yanked the chain off her neck in a flurry of movements, scrambling for the remote and turning on the TV while she was at it.

"MOTHERF—!" Sasuke yelled as he was detached from the living, falling through the chair and the floor; Hinata cringed and winced, feeling very bad for what she did but there had been no other option.

Hanabi burst into the room just then, breathing heavily with her hair disheveled as though she had been fighting off a monster rather than trying to unlock the door.

"Where is he?" she said, looking around the room frantically, but all she could spot that was new was a journal lying on Hinata's bed. Besides that, nothing else was out of order, except for her sister who was lying on the ground holding the remote.

"W-who?" the high school student asked semi-calmly.

"You know who!" Hanabi barked, jerking the closet open and shifting through the clothes in a fury. "The guy that was in here! The guy you were talking to! I heard voices; don't play dumb, big sister!"

"U-um… T-that was the TV…?" The fact that it came out as a question and that Hinata's voice was higher than it should be alerted Hanabi to the lie; her eyes thinned hazardously as she closed the closet door with her foot.

"S-seriously, H-Hanabi," she tried to sound intimidating but it was like a little bunny trying to hold a sword that was much too heavy and large for its tiny, cute paws. "You c-can't just c-come barging in w-whenever you f-feel like it. It's m-more p-polite to knock. A-and where d-did you g-get a-a key to m-my room?"

Hanabi looked under the bed, scowling when there was nothing down there but an empty box. "I don't have a key. I picked it." She had said it as though she was proud.

"I-I don't a-appreciate t-that, H-Hanabi!" Hinata gasped, appalled that her sister knew how to do such a thing and was actually pleased with it. She led her sister to the door. "N-now, g-get o-out. I h-have to c-change."

"Yeah, yeah, cool your jets, big sis." She cracked her knuckles and glanced around the room once more. "It's not like you have anything I don't have." With that, the door closed in her face, albeit gently, and Hinata locked it, turning around just in time for Sasuke to crawl through the floor looking very angry—and that was an understatement. Rage was rolling off him in waves.

"Don't. Do that. Again."

"S-sorry…!"

* * *

**a/n ::** Gosh! Now I feel like Sasuke is a little off! What's wrong with me! Haha but nahh, it's cool. I think he's okay...okay. I mean, the guy's dead and looking for help, how much pride can he actually keep in him?

Haha. So, anyways, how'd you like the chapter? I hope the characters weren't too OOC, though it'd be better if they weren't at all. Oh, and yay! Long chapter! I think this is the longest chapter I've ever done for a story, period. How exciting—for me anyways. I'm sure the rest of you could care less, haha. My favorite part is Sasuke falling through the floors; I'm gonna have a lot of fun with that in the future! You can totally bet on it! ;]

But, yeah, so now's the next part: you must…REVIEW! Why? Because it makes the whole world go round, that's why, you silly ducks, you!

Signing off,


	4. Unforgiven

7.23.10

_Dull_

**Full Summary: **For Hyuuga Hinata, seeing ghosts is an everyday thing. They come from far and wide to seek her assistance, because she's the only one who can help them move on into the next world. When a certain deceased Uchiha Sasuke catches wind of her abilities and comes asking for her help, things begin to get stranger as she quickly realizes that he isn't a regular ghost. There's more than meets the eye to this dead guy!

Disclaimer: Yeah, so I don't own Naruto. That should be obvious though…

**a/n ::** It's been so long, you guys! What can I say to excuse my ridiculously long absence? Nothing that would help, probably, haha. Well, mainly things got busy as school came around and writer's block and…just life in general. You know, the works. I know, I know, it's no excuse and I should be more dedicated and I'M SORRY! On my behalf, I wanted to continue this several months ago but when I opened the file up, I was like, "Oh shizz. Where was I trying to go with this story?" And after that was a doozy….

But one day, one magical day, I was sitting on the can (yes, that's how all great masterpieces start off) and then I realized what I wanted to do and how I was going to do it so then I ran downstairs, found a working lap top (cause my original has jacked up keys) and pulled up the file and sat down, popped in The Little Mermaid en espanol (barely understood it) AND STARTED TO PLAN THIS BABY OUT AND OH YEAH, I GOT SOMETHING GOOD.

You will be happy to know that I shall not leave you guys again (I'm hoping, anyways, but if I do, know I'll be back once summer hits! Let's just hope I don't leave…) and I shall update!

I really wanted to apologize sincerely; I hadn't meant to leave you guys for so long. I also want to thank those of you for staying with me all this time and keeping patience (or at least pretending to) because it means a lot to me, you nameless people!

Now, enough of my mumbo-jumbo. Continue on down for the next chapter of Dull.

* * *

oo3 :: unforgiven

"Goddammit!"

She was _really_ sure he wasn't supposed to be saying those things.

"Sorry!" Hinata squeaked, pressing her hands to her face in fear as Sasuke once again crawled out from the lower floors to reach her bedroom; he was scowling as though someone had called just stabbed his back – or sent him sinking at quick speeds through the ground.

He gritted his teeth as his eyes narrowed dangerously. "I thought we had agreed we weren't going to do this anymore," he growled, pulling the rest of his body through. "I don't know about you, but dropping at three hundred miles per hour through the damn floor is _not_ something I enjoy doing, _Hinata_." He had hissed out her name as though it was venom, and she cringed, knowing that she was the cause for his bad mood.

She had been reading her ancestor's diary to try and find any clues as to how to help Sasuke's predicament; while she was doing that, she had worn the necklace so that he could understand the limits of his temporary state, though they both knew the true, unspoken reason: he liked the feeling of being alive, even if it was just a temporary illusion.

Time sped by quite quickly, what with Hinata being immersed in her reading and Sasuke enjoying the feel of objects beneath his sensitive fingertips. It wasn't until her father bounded up the stairs with determination that she had quickly yanked off the ancient accessory just as the door flew open.

She had to shiver at how close the call had been.

"A-are you o-okay?" Hinata asked for lack of a better way to apologize.

"You're not seriously asking me that question."

"O-oh, u-um never m-mind, then…"

Why was he so intimidating? Was he doing it on purpose or was he just a naturally scary fellow? She didn't know the answers and there was no way that she was going to voice her thoughts aloud, so Hinata merely settled for keeping silent, her eyes back onto the journal. So far, there was nothing in the diary that she didn't already know: ghosts were able to move on, not all were looking for help, some spirits were evil and weren't trying to move, she knew all of that already. What she didn't know about was the pendant or about ghosts with amnesia, but the journal didn't mention any of it again.

_February 13th. Someone has been following me home every day. I can feel them watching. I know they're watching. I think they're after the necklace, but I'm not sure why. What other powers does this amulet possess? I've been researching every day, going to the library, checking the Haruno Family Archives. There's no documentation of this necklace, nothing. I can't find any bit of information and it's frustrating to say the least! Whoever has been following me obviously has more information on it than I do, but I can't just confront them about it. Oh, Kami, when did dealings with the dead get so complicated?_

There was nothing else after that. Hinata flipped the page, and flipped the next, and the next, and continued to do so until she reached the last page before the back cover. What happened to Irihi after that? Did that man…kill her? She swallowed a thick lump in her throat and tried not to dwell on that possibility.

Now that she thought about it, Hinata had never met Grandma Irihi. She had only ever seen her in old portraits and pictures and a few stories the maids used to tell, but she had never actually seen her face to face. Was that because she had died or because they just never bothered to visit her?

Sighing, she closed the journal and slipped it in between the mattress; afterward, she rolled over on her stomach and stared up at the ceiling. What should she do now? The diary didn't have any other useful information, just creepy entries about a creepy stalker. Did that mean Hinata had a stalker or was she just paranoid and thinking too much? Grandma Irihi was right – when did things get so complicated when dealing with the dead? If she wanted cryptic clues, she'd just talk to the living.

"Sasuke?"

He didn't answer but she assumed he was listening.

"I…I d-don't know w-what t-to do. W-what should we d-do now?" she asked, hoping that he had some helpful suggestions. It had never been so difficult before, helping a ghost; usually, they just had a message to deliver or something. She had never had to deal with someone who didn't know what he wanted!

"Relax."

She furrowed her brows in confusion and turned her head to face him. Her sad and pouty face was pathetic, resembling a beaten and kicked dog.

"What are you making that expression for?"

"I promised t-to h-help you, but I'm s-so useless…" she mumbled, letting out another sigh. "I d-don't k-know w-what I can d-do!"

"Geez, would you just calm down?" He rolled his eyes at her dramatic exclamation and shook his head. "Why are you so worked up? Obviously, we weren't going to solve the mystery in a single night. I'm not expecting you to be some kind of miracle worker or Wonder Woman. Are you always this uptight and pessimistic? God, you're even bringing me down!"

She bit her lip and looked back up at the ceiling, suddenly feeling a lot worse. She knew that she had self-esteem problems but she had never wanted him to just point it out so blatantly without even considering her feelings. So far, he had never made fun of her or anything, just made comments on her faults and tried to make her better; Hinata knew she needed to change, but… His words made her heart wretch.

As if he suddenly noticed her gloomy demeanor worsen after his "pep talk," he sighed gruffly and tried to soften his voice into something less…Sasuke-like.

"Listen," he started, and she cringed, expecting another scolding. "I know you're worried and anxious, but things just don't happen the way we want it to. That's just life – it's a bitch. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort and a lot of time before results start coming in, alright? So, don't freak out or anything." He cleared his throat uncomfortably, not used to giving comforting words; she replied by slipping under her covers with her back to him, reaching out to turn off the lights. It was only when darkness invaded the room that she opened her mouth to express her opinion on his attempt at consolation.

"…Sasuke…?"

"Mhm."

"Thanks."

She heard him pause. Maybe in surprise?

"Any time."

Hinata smiled quietly, fingering the necklace in her hands. There were a lot of mysteries surrounding it and she really was very anxious and nervous about not being able to find all the answers. She did have a habit of getting too apprehensive when she didn't know her next move, but she wasn't alone. Sasuke was going to help her; Hinata didn't have to stand alone, and even if he did have a weird way of treating people who agreed to help him, he wasn't so bad. He was temperamental but at least he wasn't evil.

"Stupid duck…"

"I h-heard that."

"Good."

Well, maybe just a little bit evil.

As she held tightly onto the pendant, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep and, for the first time, she was a little excited for tomorrow.

* * *

_Where was she?_

_Hinata looked around, but nothing was familiar. She was in a hallway; looking down at the wooden floorboards, she saw tiny feet that didn't belong to her. Her body bent down to touch a cut on her foot, but she hadn't willed it. So, she was in an unfamiliar house inhabiting a body she couldn't control – a dream, possibly? A strange one if it was._

_Abruptly, the room became cold and her body stopped in its tracks. A sudden chill of fear ran down her spine; she was afraid to turn around, but she didn't know why. Straightening her back, she finally noticed that her eye level barely reached the surface of the stand beside her. To look at the blue, beautifully carved vase holding a variety of different flowers, she'd have to tilt her head far back. So, she was a child? Was this a memory of long ago? No, that wasn't right…_

_Shaking her out of her thoughts was a disturbing laughter that came from behind her, echoing off the walls. Slowly, she turned around but saw nobody; her heart nearly jumped out of her chest. Hinata felt her tiny hands sweat and clench and unclench. That end of the hall seemed darker and more sinister. One of the light bulbs on that side malfunctioned and died, allowing the darkness to hide whatever creature was over there._

_Her mouth opened and a voice that was not hers spoke._

"_M-Mister M-Madara?" she squeaked without consent. Another wave of fear swept through her; her knees knocked together and she almost fell over. "M-Mister Madara, I-I don't have time to play with you today." A quiet shrill of laughter made her falter in her words. "I-I have an important p-play date that my mommy m-made for me with the neighbor, s-so – "_

_Something moved._

_Hinata gulped and her body took a step backward; stumbling, she fell onto her butt, too scared to get up and run._

_The whole hallway suddenly became dark. She muffled a scream by squeezing her hands against her mouth; her eyes searched the dark frantically, but the heavy heartbeat in her ear was distracting._

_Silence._

_She let out a shaky breath._

"_M-Mister Madara…?"_

_Something grabbed onto her leg and dragged her through the bleak blackness._

"Hinata!"

She sat up with a scream, clutching onto the necklace and the covers of her bed for dear life. Her heart was beating rapidly in her chest and just about ready to claw its way out unless her lungs found a way to climb through her throat first. She gasped for breath, collapsing back onto her pillow; with the back of one hand, she wiped the sweat off her brows and tried to fumble around for the nightmare, but it was gone. All she could remember was a dark hallway and a disturbing laughter.

"What the hell?" Sasuke asked from beside her.

Weakly, she turned her head, trying to calm down her hysterical heart while finding her voice.

"B-bad d-dream …" she whispered. Hearing how stupid and pathetic she seemed at that moment, her cheeks tinted a pink hue and she rolled over onto her side, facing her lamp. What kind of high school student woke up screaming from nightmares? But, it had been terrifyingly realistic, no matter its strange elements.

"God damn, Hinata." Sasuke sighed, shaking his head. "Shit, I thought you were having a seizure or something!"

"Sorry," she mumbled, relaxing her body. "It…it was really s-scary."

"No kidding, damn." He ran a hand through his hair, looking very distraught. It seemed that she must've given him quite a jolt; her body was probably twisting around a lot to give him such a panic. Any other day she would've felt terrible, but that dream… She couldn't stop thinking about it, or about what she could recall anyways. It was so… Hinata shivered.

"What was it about?" he asked.

"I can't r-remember." It was both a relief and a frustration.

"Maybe that's a good thing."

She bit her bottom lip, unsure.

"Yeah," she said softly, though she didn't really believe it. She knew there was something crucial about that dream that she shouldn't have forgotten, something that could help them. Hinata didn't know what and why she believed so; it was just a gut feeling, but no matter how hard she pressed her brain to remember, she couldn't. In the end, she ended up with a light headache.

"Worry about it later," Sasuke said, noticing her thoughtful expression. "Get up. Don't you living people have school around this time?"

She groaned softly and kicked off the blanket, about to set the necklace down until she remembered that Hanabi was able to pick locks now. She frowned and turned to Sasuke for advice, raising the object in question to ask her silent inquiry.

"What, you want me to watch it again?" he asked sarcastically. "Just take it with you."

Once she was finished her morning activities, she stepped out of her private bathroom all dressed for school. She took the brush into her bedroom, trying to fix her messy wet hair in the mirror. It was short and choppy, very boyish, unlike Hanabi's long, pretty hair.

Hinata glanced over to Sasuke, about to ask a question; realizing how ridiculous it was, she closed her mouth and turned back to the mirror, though her eyes would flicker over to him as though it was imperative she ask. Finally, he became fed up with her constant looks and threatened to possess her if she didn't tell him what the problem was. She highly doubted he could do such a thing, but the way he looked and the way he said it made her believe in the possibility.

"Um…d-do you think I should g-grow o-out my h-hair?" she asked, looking at herself in the mirror instead of at his irritated expression.

"That's it?" he deadpanned. "That was your big question?"

"Never m-mind," she said quickly, setting her brush down and gathering her things. She tried not look in his direction for fear of how he was staring at her; he seemed to have a way of insulting her without even saying a word.

"You girls care too much about stupid things like that," he scoffed, following her out the door. "Does it even matter?"

"I was just wondering…" she mumbled, embarrassed.

He glanced over at her as they stepped down the stairs, folding his hands behind his head.

"Don't."

"D-don't what?"

"Don't grow it out."

She stopped in her tracks and watched as he passed her by and pause at the bottom of the stairs, glaring at her impatiently. She grinned secretly to herself, pleased at his input (it was just like having a girlfriend over, though she'd never tell him that) and bounded down the stairs with a little more energy in her steps. Entering the kitchen, she peered at the seat her father would always sit in next to Hanabi while Hinata sat a couple of seats away by herself. It was like they were in their own little club that she could never be a part of, a childish analogy but she figured it fitted her situation.

Opening the refrigerator, she poured herself a glass of orange juice and dropped two slices of bread into the toaster. Afterward, she leaned against the counter and stared down at her toes; she had painted them a green color, but they were chipping away from lack of care. Peeking at Sasuke from beneath her bangs, she tried to think of something to say.

"Um…" she started. "How did you s-spend your m-mornings?"

"I don't know if it slipped your mind or something, but I've got amnesia."

She flushed, feeling very stupid. "Oh, r-right…" Of course he had amnesia! Why else would he be there asking for her help?

Finished with her breakfast, she piled her school things together in her bag and draped the straps over her shoulders, heading for the door. She thought about what she was to do at school: pay attention and try and get decent grades, but most of all, she needed to find that junior Dosu and give him a very important message, but what did he even look like? How was she going to find him in that big high school?

Locking the door behind her, she walked down the street toward her bus stop. They had limos, yes, but that was only for Hanabi and her father; because she was such a disgrace, he didn't want her staining the leather seats with her presence. She didn't mind, though. It was too quiet and stale in the limousines; the buses were much livelier.

"Hey." Sasuke stopped suddenly and turned around, frowning.

She looked back at him curiously, wondering what made him suddenly so edgy. Following his gaze, she stared off at the other houses and other streets but found nothing out of the ordinary.

"Is s-something t-the matter?"

"I thought I saw someone."

"Heading to t-the bus s-stop?"

"Stupid duck. Someone _following _you."

She swallowed and stepped closer to Sasuke, holding her hands together in slight fear. She had never had a stalker before, and her thoughts immediately flew back to her grandmother's journal. Was it happening to Hinata, everything that happened to Irihi? Was there really someone after the pendant? But how did they even know she had it?

"You've got the necklace, right?"

"Yeah, i-in –"

"You don't need to flaunt it. Just make sure it doesn't get taken."

The way he was so stiff, standing there and looking around for this mysterious follower was making her nervous. She didn't see anyone and wouldn't feel as scared if he wasn't making such a big deal out of something that was probably a trick his eyes did. His serious face made her jittery.

"M-maybe it was a ghost."

"Hn. Maybe." A few more seconds staring off at nothing, searching for an elusive man (or woman), and then he turned around and continued walking toward her bus stop. A little frightened and not wanting to be left behind, she jogged after him and reached his side, glancing behind her fearfully every now and again. Suddenly, the trees and cars seemed more menacing, hiding an evil she couldn't see and probably didn't want to see. Being next to Sasuke made her feel a little better, even though she knew that, were she to be attacked, he probably wouldn't be able to do anything.

"I-is it s-safer for me to w-wear it?" she asked quietly.

"No, don't do –"

"Hey, Hinata!" Ino's dark red convertible pulled up next to them. Her blonde hair was pulled up into a ponytail and her fringe was pushed to off to the side, revealing bright, blue eyes on a pretty, heart-shaped face. Gorgeous like a goddess and a wonderful personality, too; Ino was the greatest.

"G-good morning," Hinata smiled and waved.

"You need a ride?" The blonde revved her car and laughed when Hinata jumped in shock. "I promise it's a lot better than the bus ride."

"Okay, thanks," she nodded and opened the door, sliding in. Dropping her things next to her feet, she saw Sasuke easily slid onto the back in between them, admiring the vehicle.

"Are you alright, Hinata? You look a little shaken up."

"O-oh, n-no it's nothing."

"You sure?" Ino didn't look convince, but she didn't push the subject. "Well, how was your weekend?"

"I-it was good. I-I visited the c-cemetery and got some s-studying done." When said aloud, Hinata thought it sounded like a boring weekend, but Ino was too nice to point it out.

"You interested in the cemetery? Wow, I never knew you were into creepy things like that." Ino laughed and turned at a red light, readjusting her rearview mirror. "I always pegged you for the type to stay away from graveyards and anything that would give you a heart attack, no offense. It's just that you're the jumpy type."

Hinata smiled in response and nodded. "Y-yeah, b-but I was j-just visiting. It's r-really quiet and p-peaceful there."

"Visiting who?"

"Oh, uh, my mom."

"Cool. Did you meet anyone at the cemetery?"

"M-meet anyone? L-like who?" She glanced back at Sasuke, but mentally berated herself for being dumb. Ino was just making conversation; she obviously couldn't see ghosts and wouldn't know about Hinata's own adventures at the cemetery. It was because of the journal and Sasuke's "there's someone following you" thought that were making her mistrustful.

"Oh, I dunno. There are weirdos at the cemetery, so I just figured you might've bumped into one of them, like Naruto. You know, he's always at the graveyard wrecking the tombstones and stuff with his idiot group of friends. You didn't see them at all?"

"No, I d-didn't. N-Naruto hangs out at the cemetery?" Hinata frowned. The news didn't sit well with her; he was a trouble-maker, but she never expected him to go out defacing gravestones like that.

"Well, I wouldn't call it 'hanging out.' But whatever."

"Your friend talks a lot," Sasuke commented from behind them. Both girls ignored him, one because she heard him and couldn't reply and the other because she didn't even know she had a stowaway.

Finally reaching the school, Ino pulled up to the side entrance instead of parking her car. A lot of students passing by gawked at her amazing ride but she only waved at the ones she knew and ignored everyone else; more than the ride, though, they were staring at Ino and her beautiful self. Probably wondering why she was hanging out with a wallflower like Hinata.

"I'll see you later, Hina." Ino gave a friendly smile that Hinata returned happily. Even if everyone else thought it was weird that they were friends, she was happy that someone could be so Greek-like and still have manners and an approachable personality. More often than not, she found that the pretty ones were the ones to watch out for.

"You're not c-coming?"

"Oh, nah," she waved it off with her hand. "I'm skipping today. Gonna hang out with Sakura and Tenten at the mall."

"O-okay, have f-fun." She picked up her bags and exited the car, but before she got very far, Ino called her back, lifting up a necklace.

"I think you forgot something!"

Hinata gasped and reached for her pocket, but the pendant wasn't inside; it must've slid out of her pocket when she was in the car.

"_You_ _left the pendant?_" Sasuke exclaimed incredulously, but she didn't reply and rushed back to Ino.

"It's really pretty," the blond said, staring at the swirls inside. "Where'd you get it? I want one, but in a different color."

"I…um. I found i-it in m-my attic. I d-didn't buy i-it."

She looked disheartened that it was a one of a kind jewel. "Well, is it for sale?" she asked hopefully, trying not to beg and use the puppy eyes on Hinata, but a little hint of it slipped onto her expression anyways.

"You're not seriously going to sell it."

"O-of course not!" she muttered, insulted that he even thought she'd contemplate it.

"Excuse me?"

"N-no, n-not you, I-Ino. I-I mean, it's not f-for sale. It was my g-grandmother's, so…"

"Aw, okay. Here you go." Ino returned it to Hinata and, with a final wave, drove off into the distance.

As they headed into the school, Hinata could feel Sasuke's glare burning into her back. She had apologized about not realizing it slipped out of her pocket, but he had yet to accept it and continued to dig holes into her spine with his red-hot eyes. The pocket thing wasn't working out so she had unzipped her backpack and gently placed the necklace inside; as she zipped it up, she hoped nothing else would go wrong. If she dropped it in a classroom, she probably wouldn't be able to find it again; not everyone was like Ino, returning items that didn't belong to them.

The unlikely pair stepped into the school and immediately, Sasuke scowled with irritation.

"I have no memories of ever going to school, but I hate this place already."

Hinata led the way to her locker, pushing and shoving through the hordes of people. She could understand his feelings; high school was a hectic place to be. The halls and classrooms were crammed with students who didn't want to be there, taught by teachers who'd rather spend time with people their age than little teenagers who couldn't do much more than back talk and complain.

"It's not that b-bad…" she said, trying to defend the school's honor.

"There are no windows."

"They s-say it was modeled a-after a prison," she responded, giving a cheeky grin when he glared at her for her information.

"Why did you think I would want to know that?"

Glancing at the school clock, Hinata saw that she had arrived about twenty minutes before the bell rang; add that in with the extra ten minutes they received when the bell did ring, she had a total of thirty minutes to run around the school and find Dosu. She didn't mind being late; her first class was with Asuma. She was his favorite student and was always lenient on her, even going so far as to pretend to give her detention slips so the other students wouldn't suspect.

"C-come on," she said to Sasuke after dumping her textbooks in the locker.

"Don't tell me I'm stuck here in this god-forsaken place with you!" he groaned, following behind her. He passed right through everybody, and she had to wonder if it felt weird, phasing right through living people as if they weren't there. Did he ever feel anything strange happening to his body, or was it just like walking through air? "When does school end?"

"In eight h-hours."

His brooding silence wasn't comforting, but she had bigger things to worry about than his boredom. She was stuck in school eight hours a day for nine months of the year; she always had to deal with the boredom five days a week, so he could bear with it for a while. And anyways, he could leave whenever he wanted, but she wasn't as brave as Sakura and Ino, and her grades weren't as good. Therefore, she couldn't.

By the corner, she saw Shikamaru with a group of his friends. She and Shikamaru used to be next door neighbors when they were younger, but ever since he moved away when he was in middle school, they had grown apart and he had changed, to say the least. She was a little scared to approach him, even if they did use to be good friends; minus the fact that he and his friends were upperclassmen, it was a well-known point that Shikamaru and his buddies had a tendency to do drugs and get high at school. Everyone swore that when they passed him by, they could smell the weed on him. Seeing Chouji there was encouragement, though; even as his best friend, Chouji never did drugs – just ate. A lot.

"Um, e-excuse me," she said as she approached, but none of them heard nor noticed her.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and shoved his hands into his ghost pockets, shaking his head at her pathetic attempt at gaining attention.

"You've got to be louder than that, Hinata. Cuss a little or something."

"I d-don't know h-how," she whispered back.

"Say something like, 'Bitch, I'm talking to ya!' Or something gangster like that." He smirked at the thought of Hinata trying to act gangster and she gave him a small glare, but he merely laughed it off. "At least be louder. And lose the stutter."

"Ex… Excuse me!" she said, and they turned their attention to her. Huh. Being louder really did work. "Um, do-do you know a Dosu?"

"Hey, who's the cutie?" one guy asked, leering at her, completely ignoring her question.

"Eh, she's alright."

"Want a joint, baby-cakes?"

"Ay, ay, chill, guys. She cool, I know her." Shikamaru wiped his hands on his cargo pants and stood up, leading her away from the group and the awful smell that was starting to invade her senses. "What's up, Hina?"

The scent still lingered around Shikamaru, but it wasn't as strong and it mingled with his wood and forest smell. In the past, his hobby was always hanging out in the forest, and it seemed that that hadn't changed; at least he wasn't completely different.

"I'm l-looking for D-Dosu?"

"Are you telling him or are you asking him?"

_Ignore, ignore, ignore._

"I k-know he's a junior, b-but that's all."

Shikamaru scratched his chin with his middle finger as he looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah, I know him. He's a big delinquent. Always in the detention rooms or the ISS rooms."

In school suspension was about as bad as it got. She should've expected that, though, considering Zaku's personality – guess it ran in the family.

"Normally, though, he's cleaning up the boys' bathroom as punishment. What you need him for, Hina? That guy's no good; steer clear of him."

"I-I just need to g-give him a message from…f-from Principal Anko," she lied, fidgeting with her thumbs.

"Hmm." Shikamaru let out a soft cough, turning his head away from her politely. "He's probably behind the dumpster in the courtyard. I heard he's always over there in the morning vandalizing it, drawing penises and whatnot."

"Really?" Sasuke raised a brow. "What a loser, god. Why are we looking for this guy anyways? Something to do about our mystery pendant, I'm hoping."

After she sincerely thanked Shikamaru and left him to get high or whatever it was he did over there, she answered Sasuke's question as she led him to the courtyard. Amazingly, it was rather empty; most people tended to swarm the courtyard early in the morning because that was the only time they were ever able to use the tables there since the principal didn't allow anyone eating outside. Today though, there were few stragglers, mainly upperclassmen delinquents looking for a place to smoke their cigarettes and drink their beer in peace. They all ignored the little freshman, though, thankfully.

"You know," Sasuke began as he stared at an empty beer bottle with disgust. "It's probably a good thing that this school was modeled after a prison. These students need to get used to a prison-like environment, seeing as how that's where they're going to spend the rest of their lives."

"Sasuke!" she scolded, shocked at his negative words.

"What?" He shrugged. "Hey, I think that's your dumpster."

She turned in the direction he pointed at and – true enough – there was the dumpster and, as they got closer, there was Dosu drawing penises...

"I can't believe you think he's going somewhere in life."

"Dosu?"

He didn't turn and look at her, just continued his masterpiece with a sharpie. There were a lot of his work of arts drawn on the dumpster; it looked like he had been working on covering the entire thing up ever since his freshman year – either that or he had been a very busy boy those past few months. She wondered why Anko never did anything to stop him, but then again, the entire student body seemed to be hell-bent on causing Anko problems.

"You…you're Dosu, r-right?" she said, not wanting to get closer due to the smell, but she took a few steps forward anyways.

"Whaddya want?" he asked gruffly. "I'm busy."

"We can see that."

Sasuke could be so distracting sometimes! Maybe it was a better idea for him to just wander around and basically leave her alone at school because his constant unnecessary commentary was quite irritating; she was going to need to talk to him about it later, once she worked up the courage and was sure he wouldn't possess her or anything…

"I…"

Now, the main problem was: how was she supposed to word this?

_So, your dead brother visited me the other day. He wants you to know that it's not your fault. I'm not sure what that means, maybe that he doesn't want you to feel guilty about his death, but, you know._

Wow. That was going to get her a black eye for sure.

"Speak up, fresh meat," he ordered.

"I just…I-I don't k-know h-how to word this..." she admitted, twisting her thumb nervously. "I d-don't want you t-to think I-I'm lying or w-weird, b-but…"

"Spit it out."

She bit her bottom lip and looked to Sasuke who provided no help.

"It…wasn't your fault," Hinata whispered, staring at the ground and then slowly raising her eyes to his figure. "It wasn't y-your fault, what happened."

There was no change in his position, no change in his action. He continued drawing and continued to keep his back to her, but the atmosphere shifted slightly; things became a little colder and she could tell that she had caught his attention, even if he pretended that he wasn't interested.

"Dosu?"

"I heard you the first time." He placed the marker down and stood up, turning to her. He was glaring at her with hard and cold, dark eyes; it looked like she had stepped over the line. She hadn't even needed to explain that the message was from his brother; he just automatically knew where she was trying to go. Maybe a lot of people had tried to persuade him to realize he needed to stop blaming himself for what happened to his brother. Whatever the reason, he took what she said offensively.

"Hinata," Sasuke said, all sense of humor and sarcasm draining from his voice. "Take a few steps back."

She did as she was told – which, now that she thought about it, was probably a good idea, since he was likely to start throwing punches.

"Who the hell do you think you are, bitch?"

His sudden outburst frightened her to the point where she froze stiffly, unable to move her legs. The intensity of his anger was distressing, the way she could feel how suppressed it was, trying to escape his containment and just lash out at her for her insensitive words.

"I just…" she stammered, looking at anything but him. "I-I w-was t-trying t-to –"

"'Ta piss me off?"

She shook her head rapidly, wishing she could just sink into her shoes right then and there. It wasn't supposed to happen like that; he wasn't supposed to take it the wrong way. He was supposed to thank her and then they could live their separate and happier lives.

"N-no, I-I…"

"Hinata, run!" Sasuke yelled, watching helplessly as Dosu roughly grabbed Hinata's face to make her look at him, but she couldn't. Her legs wouldn't listen.

"Listen here, freshman," he hissed, squeezing her cheeks tightly. "You think just 'cause you a little cute you can walk in here talkin' 'bout shit you don't understand? Do ya?"

"I j-just – I w-was just d-delivering a m-message fo-for Zaku."

"Don't talk like you fuckin' know him."

"Hinata, move your ass!"

"You know nothin' 'bout Zaku."

"Y-you're w-wrong," she whispered as his hand left her face to clutch at her neck.

"What'd you say?"

"Y-you're – you're wrong."

He loosened his grip just barely for her to gasp for air and speak.

"Goddammit!" Sasuke threw himself at Dosu but phased right through him and ended on the ground on the other side, glaring up hatefully at the scene, enraged that he couldn't do anything to save her. Dosu's hand against her neck was burning and painful and bruising; she clutched at his wrist desperately, but she was too weak and could only feebly hold on and hope that she wouldn't suffocate to death.

Dosu leaned forward until they were nose to nose and she could smell the faint traces of cigars and alcohol on his breath. "What the hell do you know about my bro? Huh, fresh meat?"

She could barely breathe, struggling against his hold; her voice scarcely escaped her lips, the words holding only enough power to reach Dosu's ears before fading away.

"I know a l-lot of things. I know t-that h-he l-looks mean but h-has a b-big h-heart. I k-know t-that people ju-judge him without t-trying to get to know h-him, l-like I d-did. I-I know t-that he l-loved you very much." Her eyes began to tear up at the lack of oxygen. "I k-know that h-he doesn't w-want you to suff-suffer any-anymore, I k-know that he is v-very s-strong and f-full of p-pride and i-it's hard for him t-to ask f-for help, b-but he'd do it b-because he m-misses y-you and i-is tired of f-following you a-around and watching-watching you beat y-yourself up over s-something that isn't your fault, for something t-that he d-doesn't even blame you for."

"Dosu, you let her go or I'll kill you."

Hinata recognized that voice – Shikamaru? He came? If she wasn't having trouble breathing and trying to convince Dosu not to kill her and forgive himself at the same time, she would've felt an absolute wave of thankfulness that he had followed her.

The delinquent glanced over at Shikamaru but then turned his attention back to Hinata.

If she was going to die, she was going to die knowing that she convinced him and did Zaku good.

"S-stop blaming yourself. Z-Zaku – he never d-did. Even when he-he died, h-he was always w-worried about you. So, s-stop torturing your-yourself." She stared into his eyes, trying to convey to him what her words couldn't say. Finally, he dropped her and she gasped for breath on the ground, tenderly touching her neck. "H-he – that's what he wanted me to tell you."

"Cut the bullshit," he spat, and then walked away, an air of hatred and regret lingering behind him.

Shikamaru rushed to her side and bent down to her level, checking to make sure she was okay. Her neck was red and there were obvious bruises already beginning to form.

"Shit, that guy really did a number on you," he muttered, glaring at Dosu's fading back.

"I-I'm f-fine. J-just some b-bruising," she whispered, and finally noticing the gun in Shikamaru's hand, looked up at him in shock. "S-Shikamaru!"

"Oh, this?" He raised it up nonchalantly; aiming at the dumpster like an expert, he fired out paint. "It's just for show," he explained with a lazy smirk.

For some strange reason she found herself collapsed on the ground laughing quietly at him, staring at her friend with a grateful smile, grateful that he showed up, that he was intuitive, that she was alive. Grateful that, though she did not have many friends like Sakura did, the friends she did have were the very best.

She didn't even have to say anything. Shikamaru understood and rubbed her head affectionately and grinned, saying, "No problem," as if he was always running around saving people's lives.

"Here," he unzipped her fallen back pack and placed the fake gun inside. "If that gangster wannabe comes around again, just flash him this and he'll go running back to his mom with his tail between his legs."

She nodded and sat up slowly, wincing when she felt a sting of pain.

"You should probably visit the nurse and get some ice or go home," he suggested, standing up and staring up at the bright sky with a disdainful look. "You know, he wasn't always like that."

"I know," she replied. "He's just a little lost, t-that's all."

Shikamaru snorted at her words and she looked at him curiously.

"You're really nice, Hina. I'm amazed that there's someone like you in this god-awful school." He headed back toward the entrance, throwing a wave over his shoulder, but before he entered the great, big double doors that led inside the prison, he stopped and turned around. Cupping his mouth, he yelled back to her, "Don't ever change!"

Hinata smiled and waved in response, pleased to know that, though Shikamaru did dangerous things and was a little different from how she remembered him, he was still the same Shikamaru that would always save her from trouble, the Shikamaru that always looked out for her. It was good to know she hadn't lost a friend.

She stood up and reached for her back pack; turning to Sasuke, she saw him glaring at the ground as if he was trying to set it on fire with his fierce gaze.

"Sasuke?"

As if hearing her voice broke him out of a deep thought, he jerked his head up, realizing that she was still there and that they were still at school. He frowned and rubbed the back of his neck, looking away from her quickly; she touched her face to check to see if there was anything weird stuck to it, but there was nothing. He was acting a little strange.

"I…" he began quietly. "I couldn't do anything."

"W-what do you mean?"

"Dosu," he clarified.

Hinata stared at him in disbelief. She hadn't expected that. It wasn't as if she had always depicted him as some mean guy that would laugh at her if she was drowning, but she never thought he'd feel bad that he couldn't intervene. It made her a little…happy. All that time with his sarcastic comments and eye-rolls and impatient huffs, she always believed he had thought her to be annoying and was only around because she promised to help him. To know that she wasn't just a tool, that their relationship wasn't just a business-based relationship, that they were leaning more toward friends – it was an amazing feeling.

"It's okay," she said, but he shook his head.

"It's not okay. I tried, but…" He stared at his hands.

"No, really, I-I understand –"

"That's the thing – you _don't_ understand. You can't understand what it's like. You can't possibly understand what it's like to stand there and not be able to do anything. This is different from having the power to change things but deciding you won't. Your feeling of helplessness and mine are completely different."

It was true: she really didn't know how it felt. There were plenty of times where she felt powerless, where she felt as though there was nothing she could do, but the difference between her and him was that she could keep trying and hope for the best. When you were dead…no matter how hard you tried, nothing was going to change. For the first time, he let her in on what he was feeling, on what it was like to be dead, what it was like to be falling through a dark hole with no end, never knowing when you were going to hit the bottom, never knowing if someone up there was going to throw rope down and pull you up. Never knowing if you were going to be falling forever and ever.

Never knowing if he was going to be wandering around the world of the living, where people laughed and passed him by without even realizing he was there, for the rest of his existence.

As she stood there and gazed at him in a different light, she couldn't help but feel that he was a heartbreaking character.

Though they shared the same sky, not even the sun's rays touched him.

* * *

**a/n ::** Thanks for reading you guys. Again, I'm really sorry for the ridiculously long wait, but now that this has been uploaded, I shall now start on the next chapter! HOOAH!

I know I don't deserve it, but I would love you so much if you guys would take the time out of your wonderful lives and REVIEW! :D


	5. A Burning in the Heart

7.23.10

_Dull_

**Full Summary: **For Hyuuga Hinata, seeing ghosts is an everyday thing. The dead come from all over to seek her much needed help – that's about the only thing she can do. Her grades are falling, her constant stutter bothers everyone, and her father's disappointment perpetually looms over her; how much lower could her self-esteem drop? It's only when she agrees to help the ghost, Sasuke, regain his memories and essentially pass on peacefully that her life takes a 180 degree turn – for the better. He may just be the savior she's searching for as he proves her self-worth and upholds the truth that love transcends all boundaries, even the untouchable world of death.

Disclaimer: Yeah, so I don't own Naruto. That should be obvious though…

**a/n ::** Hello, my fellow lovers! I want to take the chance to thank you guys once more for reviewing; I loved each and every one of them, and if I never replied to your review, I wholeheartedly apologize but know that your wonderful words keep me going! You know who you guys are!

Notice the change in summary? I would hope so! I got tired of seeing the same ol' thing, day after day, and I became really annoyed after reading it several times and thinking, "What the hell was I thinking when I wrote this up?" I actually like the new summary better, but the full summary could use some work. Yeah, not too important, but if you see the summary changing frequently as you read the chapters – that's my picky-ness being a total bother.

Anyone ever see The Hunchback of Notre Dame? I hated that movie when I was younger, but watch it a couple of days back for the first time in like…a million years. Wow. Just. Wow. That's all I can say about that movie. So dark for a Disney movie…I never even understood that Frollo was a creepy pervert and that poor Quasimodo ended up by himself at the end of the movie and that Clopin was a BEAST at singing! That opening scene is just amazing!

Ahem. But I'm sure you guys didn't come to read about blah-blah-blah that you don't care about, so go ahead and read the fourth chapter of Dull.

Enjoy!

P.S. :: SlingtheSlingshot :: They be holding hands in this chapter :] Thanks for the idea, otherwise I wouldn't have known which direction to take!

* * *

oo4 :: a burning in the heart

"Hinata, how did this happen?" Shizune**[1]**, the resident nurse, asked her with concern lacing her voice.

Said girl looked down at her fingers, not sure how to answer. She didn't want Dosu to get in trouble; she was sure that he had enough problems without her needlessly piling more on him, so she merely shrugged her shoulders. "I fell," she replied, inwardly cringing at how stupid it sounded.

"You fell?" It was Sasuke that questioned her, not Shizune. "You're serious? What, did you land on your neck and just so happen to not break it?"

It might as well have been the nurse asking, especially with the way she was staring at Hinata with skepticism in her eyes. Hinata was grateful that she didn't press and pry, merely letting the topic drop.

"Here," Shizune said, handing her a pack of ice with an apologetic smile. "This is all I can really do. I'm sorry."

Hinata smiled to show that she wasn't offended or annoyed at the lack of pills or medicinal herbs. "No, it's o-okay. I'll be fine. J-just a little f-fall."

"Right…" Again, there was that doubting stare. "Listen, Hinata, are you having trouble with the other kids?"

"W-what do you mean?"

She paused as if trying to figure out a better way to word her thoughts. "I mean, are you being bullied by anyone? Is there anything you want to tell me?"

Like, _in my spare time, I help ghosts move on and right now, I've got this magical pendant in my back pack that brings back the dead?_

"Um, no, not r-really."

Shizune sighed, obviously not believing her; she rubbed at her temples as though she had asked those questions to many students before her and received the same answer from each one. "I know you kids think you know everything and that you're invincible, but really, it wouldn't hurt to ask for help once in a while. Taking on the world by yourself doesn't mean you're strong, okay? Sometimes, asking for help is a sign of strength; it means you know your limits and you accept them."

Honestly, she knew that the nurse was only trying to help her, and if Hinata had been just a normal girl who couldn't see ghosts and who didn't feel responsible for passing on their messages to their crazy, temperamental brothers, maybe she would've understood and accepted Shizune's advice with a little more enthusiasm. Seeing as how Hinata wasn't normal, the farthest thing from it actually, she could only nod politely and thank her for her useless attempts at counseling – but it was appreciated.

Shizune placed a hand on Hinata's, giving a comforting squeeze. "I know what you're going through; I've been through it, too."

_I'm sure it wasn't exactly like mine…_

"It's not the end of the world. High school is just a part of your life that can be as hellish as you imagine it to be, or a paradise that you'll treasure forever. It all depends on you. If you learn anything from what I just said, just…just keep in mind that your teachers are here for you. Alright? You can come to me or the student counselor any time if you feel like talking."

"O-okay," she nodded. "Thank you."

"No problem. Now, are you going to be okay getting through the day, or would you like me to call your parents to come take you home?"

"I'll b-be fine."

"Good," she said, her chair swerving in the opposite direction so that she could attend to the papers at her desk. "If it hurts, feel free to come back and I'll send you home. Don't pester it in class."

Hinata thanked her again and signed out of the nurse's office after pocketing the pink sheet that would allow her to safely slip into first period without getting reprimanded – not that her teacher would've done anything, anyways. At least this way, if anyone stopped her in the halls, she had a legitimate excuse as to why she was out of class.

She held the ice to her tender neck; it probably looked pretty bad. She was going to need to figure out a way to hide it; unwanted attention was not at the top of her list. Heading for her locker, she checked if she had left a scarf of some sort inside, believing that to be the solution to her problem; luckily for her, she did have one forgotten in the back. Tenderly wrapping it around her wound, she hid as much of her abused neck from view as possible, figuring that ice wouldn't do much at that stage.

Hinata noticed Sasuke glancing at her when she closed her locker door.

"How is it?" he asked. "Your…?" He gestured to her neck by touching his own.

"Oh, it's n-not that bad," she replied. "It's a l-little sore, t-though."

"I don't think hiding it is going to do anything for you," he stated. "No one else around is dressed in winter items."

"It'll b-be o-okay," she said, reassuring herself more than him.

After she reached first period, the rest of the classes seemed to be more of a blur than anything else. Sasuke was completely bored, and to be honest, so was she, but as uninterested as she was, Hinata forced herself to take detailed notes in case there was a pop quiz the next day; if not, at least she was prepared for the next test. Her ghost friend wasn't as distracting as she had originally thought he'd be. What with all of his snide remarks and the common, irritated mumblings, she'd figure he'd drive her up the wall with his incessant retorts that no one but she could hear. Actually, he was actually well-behaved, sometimes disappearing to explore the school, but always returning within ten minutes to slouch against her desk with an upset scowl. Most of the time, he peered over her shoulders at the notes she wrote and listened in on the lectures if something of fascination caught his attention.

Once the bell rang, signaling the end of third period, she left the classroom with Sasuke not far behind.

"Are we done here?" he asked, not bothering to mask his frustration.

Hinata glanced back at Sasuke with an amused grin. He was like a little kid that needed to be constantly entertained otherwise he'd start complaining and doing random things to keep occupied – except Sasuke wasn't a little kid. He was a dead guy that could only whine and groan and grouch. She inwardly laughed at that thought as she made her way through the crowded and packed halls to her next class.

"What do you have next?" Sasuke asked in an aloof tone, keeping up with her easily because he could just walk right through the obstacles.

"Fourth period," she replied with a soft grunt as someone pushed through her to get to their friends.

"You should start working out," he commented offhandedly. "It's survival of the fittest here."

Finally, the door to her next class came into sight and she sighed in relief, making her way to the side walls where people would bother her. She looked to Sasuke and frowned in thought. Her next class's teacher was a little…odd, if that was the right word for it. Most people felt uncomfortable with him, so she wanted Sasuke to know that it'd be okay if he left and just met her outside the room after the period ended.

"What?" he asked, seeing her staring at him in deep contemplation."Something on my face?"

"No, I-I was just thinking." She shook her head. "Um. My n-next teacher is…different. I-if you feel weird, you can j-just leave, o-okay?"

He scoffed, offended at her words as they walked into the class.

"Do you think I'm some kind of pussy that – holy shit, your teacher looks like a rapist."

Hinata ignored him and bowed to the man that had been born with unfortunate looks. "Good afternoon, Mr. Sueosoroshii**[2]**," she greeted politely.

"Oh, god, someone should tell him not to smile."

"Sasuke, don't be rude," she whispered, taking her seat in the back of the class. At first, she liked that seat because it gave her a full view of everyone and she didn't have to worry about people staring at her weirdly or throwing paper balls at her back, but now she was glad to have that seat because she could quietly talk to Sasuke without anyone noticing. Not many were in the back anyways, just a few guys that mainly slept through everything.

There was an empty desk next to her that Sasuke took. If his colors were just a little brighter, he would've looked just like a student there. She wondered what school he went to when he was alive, what he liked to eat, what type of people he hung out with. Was he always sarcastic and rude, or was he the class clown? Maybe he was a jock that demanded attention and respect. He could even have been the ultimate nerd!

"What does he teach? Wait, let me guess – sex ed."

"Health," she corrected, blinking at him in amazement. "D-did you use the p-posters to h-help you?"

"No," he smirked. "I told you. Rapist – what else would he teach?"

She sighed and pulled out a notebook and pencil, ready to take notes. For the remainder of the class, Sasuke sat beside her, paying attention rather than glaring holes at the teacher. Apparently, STDs were a very interesting topic to him; well, considering his memories were shot, he probably didn't even remember learning about it. Sometimes, he'd make sarcasticobservations, but mostly, he sat there quietly.

As the class neared close to an end, Orochimaru closed up the lecture smoothly, assigning homework pages from the textbook for that night. Once the bell rang, most students shot out of their desks and left; there were a few stragglers still gathering their belongings together, but Hinata had efficiently managed to waste time by accidentally knocking over her back pack. All the contents spilled out, scattering across the floor like little mice that just escaped the cage.

She bent down to gather them up as Sasuke went around the room locating the smaller things; he even managed to push a few toward her when Orochimaru wasn't looking, though it took a lot of effort and after a couple of pencils that wouldn't obey, he stopped trying altogether.

"Hinata?"

She grunted softly to show that she was listening; she couldn't say anything since they were alone in the room with Orochimaru with no other noise to cover up her whispers.

"Your creepy ass teacher just closed the door."

"W-what?"She looked up from piling her pencils into her back pack when she heard the lock click into place. "U-um… Mr. Sueosoroshii…? I-is there s-something wrong?"

The disturbing smile never left his pale face; his hand reached up to play with his dark hair, twirling it around his index finger as he leaned against his desk. She zipped up her back pack and slung it over her shoulder, standing up and fidgeting nervously in the back. If he made his way toward her, she was sure that she would scream, so it'd be better if he just told her what he wanted so she wouldn't get the wrong idea.

"I-I'm going t-to b-be late t-to my n-next c-class," she said, hinting that now would be a good time to open the door and let her out.

"Hmm…" Orochimaru's grin grew bigger, if that was even possible at that point, but instead of grinning at her, he was actually grinning at Sasuke. Dumbfounded, Sasuke moved to the left but Orochimaru's eyes never left his figure; stepping to the right, bright and eager eyes followed every movement.

"Can he see me?" Sasuke asked.

The teacher turned his attention back to Hinata who stared back in shock. "What's his name?" he asked her.

She stared at him, mouth agape in surprise. How was it that there was someone else just like her and she had never even known? Why hadn't he said anything? There were plenty of times where she had seen ghosts wandering around or stalking her, trying to get her to help, yet he had never even said a word.

"You – you can see Sasuke?" she gasped, almost dropping her back pack. "B-but – how?"

He shrugged his shoulders, very calm with the fact that there were now two people in existence that could communicate with the dead.

"I can see him, yes, but I can't hear him." He circled Sasuke like a predator, his hand tucked beneath his chin as if analyzing and evaluating his prey, searching for weaknesses and strength. His face told them both that he liked what he was seeing. "Interesting…very, very interesting. What a strange specimen you have here." He sounded a lot like a mad scientist; she had to wonder if he was teaching the wrong subject.

"W-what do you mean?" she asked the question that they were both thinking. It was obvious that, though he couldn't hear ghosts, there was a different ability he had up his sleeve that allowed him the advantage. She could tell by the way he stared that there was something he knew that she didn't, something that only he could do.

"His colors are different than other ghosts," he answered, still eyeing Sasuke like a piece of meat. He reached out as if to caress him, but said dead person felt that was crossing the line so he took several steps back in an attempt to create some comfortable distance between them, despite the fact nothing would've happened, anyways.

"Tell him not to touch me," the ghost said, narrowing his eyes at the rapist-look-alike. His expression was one of disgust and detestation. "It's revolting."

"He – he says he w-wants you t-to explain how h-he's different," Hinata said, sending an apologetic look Sasuke's way when he whipped around and glared at her with intense irritation. He hadn't really expected her to repeat his words, did he? Considering how rude they were? That could get her detention, but besides that fact, it was just plain impolite.

"Demanding, isn't he?" Orochimaru chuckled and she felt a shiver run up her spine (and by the way Sasuke cringed, she could only guess that he had felt the same horrified sensation). She had always pegged him as different, but it wasn't until then that she believed there to be something wrong with the man. It was like she was seeing his true colors for the first time; as though a chameleon, he had disguised himself from prying eyes and revealed his real scales when they were alone.

He started his explanation, staring at something lingering around Sasuke that neither could see. "Well, for one thing, there is a golden hue around him."

"Golden?" She turned and tried to see what Orochimaru could, but to no avail. "W-what does it m-mean?"

He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, though that eerie and knowing expression stayed on his face the entire time; he headed for the door, unlocking it after peeking out through the window to wave at his confused students. Opening it up, the students spilled inside, talking about their weekends and the latest gossip of who was dating who and that so-and-so recently went to jail. As Hinata passed by, Orochimaru placed a hand on her shoulder (Sasuke eyed him carefully, considering he had already pegged the man to be a molester) and only spoke low enough so that she could hear.

"It means that not all is as it seems."

He gave her another knowing smile as she left, feeling as though she knew less about the mystery surrounding Sasuke than when she had first walked into the classroom. Again, her eyes glanced over to him in an effort to see the gold, but once more, she saw nothing. Just an irritated ghost.

"We're not going back there again." Sasuke announced firmly. He seemed to be quite adamant about staying as far away as possible from that teacher; Hinata had to admit, after that little incident, she wasn't sure she wanted to visit him any time either. It was just her luck that she had class with him five days a week, an hour a day.

"I d-didn't really understand w-what he was s-saying…" She sighed, heading for her locker. By then, she was thoroughly late to class, but at that point, it didn't really matter anymore. Questions, questions, questions – that was all she seemed to have lately, never any answers. It was like she was walking in a maze with no exit; the ones that had dropped her inside had lied about there being a way out and she had naively believed them.

"Only a perverted nut could understand what he was saying."

"Sasuke, t-that's not nice."

"Whatever."

Opening her locker, she dumped whatever materials she didn't need into the metal container, quickly rearranging them as neatly as possible. After grabbing a few notebooks and her next textbook, she closed the door and walked toward her next designation.

"Afterwards is l-lunch," she explained, though that didn't seem to cheer him up. "We'll be o-out soon."

He groaned, pained by the thought of spending more time in the prison-like school and meeting more of her deranged and rapist teachers. "Time is just never fast enough."

* * *

"What did you bring?" Sasuke peered over her shoulder as she opened her sack lunch and peeked inside in a way that made him believe she didn't even know what she had packed.

"Um…" Hinata reached it and pushed a few things aside, checking all the items. "A carton of apple juice… The maid made a s-sandwich for me l-last night, so I took that before w-we left… There's c-chocolate pudding. I-I brought an apple, too." She pulled it out and showed him and he frowned, looking at her as if she had shown him some dead insect.

"Hate them."

"Apples?" she asked, placing the fruit back inside the paper bag.

"Yup."

She reached around behind her and pressed against the front pocket that contained the necklace, making sure that it was still there; feeling the bulge, a sudden wave of relief washed over her. Hinata hadn't realized it until then, but in the back of her mind, she had been constantly worrying about messing up and losing it somewhere. All of the scenarios of her active imagination had yet to happen, but nonetheless, the mere thought of their possibility was a little upsetting.

"Do you always pack your lunch?" he asked, starting up small talk as he followed the crowd toward the cafeteria. She figured that he was probably bored beyond belief if he was the one to instigate the conversation; normally, it was her duty to make a fool of herself by saying something stupid and sparking up a discussion.

Hinata nodded, holding her sack lunch close in case someone bumped into her and make her drop it. "Yes," she replied. "I d-don't mind making my o-own, but sometimes t-the maids help."

He sorted it out in his head. "The food here sucks that bad, huh."

"I w-wouldn't say that it sucks…"

Sasuke scoffed at her words. "I think you're missing the spice portion of your sugar and nice recipe."

"I don't like s-spices…" she admitted.

"I saw that coming," he noted aloud.

"Do you think y-you c-could eat?" she asked him after the thought had suddenly rammed itself to the forefront of her mind. "I-if I was w-wearing the necklace."

He shrugged his shoulders, not too interested in that rather dull act. "Haven't really thought about it," he answered. "Why? Did you want to try it?"

"I was just c-curious," she said, though inwardly, she did want to try it just a bit. At home, most people didn't eat her cooking; when she did make dinner, it was usually just for herself because they rarely ate around the dining table anymore. She had thought that, if Sasuke could eat, he could try some of her food. Then again, he probably wouldn't want to.

Abruptly, she noticed that Sasuke wasn't by her side anymore; it was strange because the hordes of people shouldn't be able to stop him like they stopped her. Hinata turned around and saw him staring in the opposition direction at something she couldn't see. He took a few steps forward and she reached out, as if to stop him, but pulled back when she remembered he wasn't alive.

"W-wait, the cafeteria i-isn't that way," she said, but he suddenly took off. "S-Sasuke!" Several people turned to look at her curiously, knowing no one by that name, but she hadn't noticed as she ran after him, saying quick apologies when someone sent her a glare for pushing them out of the way.

"Hinata, hurry up!" She saw him glance back at her impatiently, but while she was trying to weave through the thick strings of friends, he easily slipped through them as though they were little spider webs. As much as Hinata tried, she couldn't keep up; even when she was shoving through people as politely as possible, he was still much too quick for her. As she ran, she could barely make out the faint, dull color of his spiky hair, constantly losing it in the crowd.

"Put on the necklace," he ordered, pausing momentarily. There was a frantic look in his eyes, as if he was afraid that, whatever it was he was chasing, would disappear the moment he turned away for too long.

"W-what?"

"Just put it on!"

She moved off to the side, trying to avoid the stampede of kids rushing to eat or rushing to beat the bell to the class; pulling off her back pack, she reached into the pocket with the necklace and hesitatingly drew the loop over her head. The instant she wore it, the pendant flashed and Sasuke materialized in front of her. Some stared in surprise when they bumped into a body that they had made sure wasn't there, but he ignored their confused expressions when he grabbed Hinata's hand and dragged her through the throngs of scuttling students. His hold on her hand hurt; he was gripping it so tightly, trying his best not to haul her along like luggage – though that was what she felt like, anyways.

"S-Sasuke, w-where are we g-going?" But it seemed that her question landed on deaf ears because he didn't look back to answer, just kept pulling her along, not even noticing her wince in pain.

Abruptly, she saw him reach out for a bright light, as if jumping headfirst into heaven itself. Her hand tightened against his in slight fear, suddenly afraid that they were going to fall into something and wouldn't be able to get out, but wait – he wasn't falling. He was trying to grasp something – someone.

Blonde hair. Hinata recognized the spikes and the golden color right away.

Sasuke gripped his shoulder with his free hand and yanked him around so they were face to face, wide onyx eyes clashing with puzzled blue ones.

"Naruto." The name had escaped the ghost's lips alongside a breath she hadn't known that he was holding. From his expression, it was as though he had found a long lost brother, or a piece of himself that he had once thought to be gone forever, but it deeply contrasted with Naruto's baffled and grounded expression, bringing them back down to reality.

The blonde furrowed his brows in uncertainty. "Sorry, do I know you?" he asked.

"We're… You're…" Sasuke choked on some words and then swallowed a lump in his throat. Then, as if he wasn't sure what he was trying to say or what message he had originally wanted to convey, he shut his mouth and shook his head hesitantly, as though he thought saying nothing wasn't the best option. "Wrong person, I guess," he mumbled, releasing his shoulder and taking a step back.

Naruto gave him a friendly smile, unfazed by the stranger's behavior. "No worries. Happens to me all the time!" Finally noticing Hinata next to Sasuke, Naruto's attention turned to her and then the hand that she was holding onto so tightly. "This your boyfriend, Hinata? You never told me you were taken!"

Immediately, her face turned a beet red and she released his hand, suddenly realizing how sweaty hers was. Hiding it behind her back, she inwardly panicked and hoped that Sasuke hadn't noticed.

"N-no," she stuttered. She was slightly mortified that he had the wrong idea. "He's – he's j-just a friend."

"Hey, I get it," Naruto chuckled, throwing his hands up in the universal sign of peace to show that he meant no harm. He winked at her and laughed when she dropped her gaze and her face turned redder, if that was even possible at that point.

"Relax, your secret's safe with me!" He punched Sasuke lightly on the shoulder, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "You got yourself a good catch. Take care of her or I'mma kick your ass! See you later, Hinata – oh, and nice scarf!"

Sasuke stood still, staring at Naruto's fading back. It didn't look like he was going to move or say anything for a while; she was curious and a little confused as to what had just transpired, but she didn't want to ask and pry if he didn't want to answer. Seeing that they were in everyone's way, she grabbed onto his arm and pulled him off to the side; what really worried her was that he allowed himself to be dragged, something that she was sure he would've yelled at her for, or at least jerk his arm away.

The halls finally cleared and they were still the only two in the hall. Sasuke leaned against the lockers and slid down to the ground; pulling his legs up, he leaned his arm against his thighs and stared at the ground.

Hinata licked her lips and joined him on the smooth and clean floor. Should she say something? Was it okay? He had been silent for a while with a blank expression; she couldn't read his eyes, though the tension in his shoulders told her that he was far from okay.

"S-Sasuke?" she whispered, almost afraid to break him out of his thoughts. "W-what's wrong?" Hinata unconsciously twisted her finger in anxiety, twiddling her thumbs and whatever else to keep her hands occupied. "D-did you know him?"

"I don't know," he mumbled, furrowing his brows.

"You knew his name, t-though."

"I saw his stupid hair and…I don't know. My body just reacted. I felt like I had to run after him, so I did. Shit, what the hell is happening!" Frustrated, he ran his hands through his raven hair and sighed, clenching his eyes shut as he tried to organize his thoughts. "And that damn beeping sound!"

She didn't know what to say or how to console him, and that was just killing her. Hinata bit her bottom lip and stared at the hands in her lap, unsure if she was supposed to reach out and hug him or pat him on the shoulder, though knowing him, he'd probably push her away.

"I can't remember a goddamn thing!" He slammed the back of his head into the lockers behind him and stared up at the ceiling that seemed so high up, glaring at something she couldn't see.

"It's okay," Hinata said softly. "I'm sure you'll r-remember eventually."

"You don't know that."

"I do. Everything a-always works out in the end – t-that's what my m-mom said."

He didn't reply to that, just continued to glare up into the distance. Eventually, Hinata stood up and dusted the invisible dirt off her pants and stared down at him expectantly; he turned his scowl on her, but she worked up the courage to not cringe and look away.

"What?" he snapped, not in the mood for games.

"Let's go," she said.

"To your next class? No thanks."

"I h-have lunch, a-and t-that isn't what I-I meant."

He glanced at her, annoyed and aggravated by her attempts at consolation; he pulled himself up, his facial expression never changing. "Where to?" he asked begrudgingly, shoving hands into his pockets.

"D-do you h-have anywhere in p-particular you want to go t-to?"

"I don't give a rat's ass," he muttered. "_You're_ the one who wants to skip out."

It was probably a really bad idea, ditching class, but she couldn't just continue through her day as if everything was normal while Sasuke was clearly in a mood. It didn't feel right, and Hinata was certainly not that type of person. She could see that it was really bothering him – the fact that he was different from other ghosts and that he couldn't remember anything, the fact that some things seemed to trigger a physical response but not a mental one.

"It's just one day," she said, more to reassure herself rather than him. The thought of punishment was looming over her head like a bad curse, but she pushed it to the back of her mind and decided to worry about the consequences later. "Let's go home."

"Don't tell me you want to walk."

"O-okay, I won't tell you…"

He scoffed and looked away, probably glaring at something else, but she saw his lip quirk upward slightly.

"Where's your bag?"

Good question. Where did she last drop her back pack? Turning around, she scanned down the halls in the direction they had come from and saw a familiar looking back pack sitting smack dab in the hall; it looked as though people had kicked it farther down. She hoped that no one had stopped and shuffled through, but anything worth taking was currently being worn around her neck. He followed her as she picked up her back pack and slung it around her shoulders; it was heavy, much too heavy for her fragile frame. Hearing an irritated snort beside her, the back pack suddenly lifted off her shoulders and onto Sasuke's.

"Y-you don't have to," she protested.

"Oh, but I do…" he grumbled under his breath, though she hadn't quite caught what he had said.

"W-wait, the exit i-isn't—"

"I know," he replied, smoothly interrupting her. He stopped at the five feet limit, waiting for her to catch on and catch up, but when she merely stared at him with a slow puzzlement, he sighed and reached for her hand. Straight away, she slipped out of his grip and wiped them on her pants, looking away with awkwardness. Normally, her hands weren't sweaty; it only ever happened when she was a lot warmer than she would've liked, and at that moment, it was most likely because of the scarf.

She saw him shake his head and roll his eyes impatiently, holding out his hand for her to take, but she shook her head.

"I don't care," he stated, huffing slightly.

"I-it's g-gross," she stammered with pink cheeks, but he ignored her with another roll of his eyes and reached for her tiny hand again, but she hid them behind her back stubbornly.

"Really?" he deadpanned. "You're going to do this now? It's probably cause of that damn thing around your neck, anyways."

Hinata didn't answer and continued to blush and stubbornly resist; she was self-conscious like the rest of the female population, not more or less, but exactly the same amount, just like a regular teenage girl. If she wasn't so embarrassed, she would've been relieved that she wasn't as abnormal as she had originally thought herself to be.

"Hinata," he growled, patience wearing thin.

"I-I don't w-wanna…"

With another glare (all that hard work to cheer him up went down the drain), he grabbed the end of her scarf rather than her limb and dragged her along like a dog. If anyone had seen them, they'd think it was similar to a reluctant and hard-headed pet and its owner.

"I don't understand why girls are so freaking difficult!"

Despite the irritation radiating off him in waves, she couldn't help but smile a little. It was a funny predicament, frankly, and at least it meant his mood had lifted. He wasn't upset about his lost memories or the fact that he just stopped a person who didn't know him, thinking it was someone he knew, but instead mad at her, the way it should be. Hinata would rather have him fuming about something she did than have him mope about something he couldn't change overnight, advice he had told her the before. Anyways, she wouldn't admit it, but she thought it was amusing whenever he threw a tantrum – if she overlooked the slightly murderous intention in his eyes.

Sasuke kept her on a tight leash, not wanting the distance between the two to get to four feet so they wouldn't have to worry about hitting five.

"W-where are we going?" she asked, stumbling slightly when he yanked her close because she had fallen too far behind. "Ow!"

He glanced back at her, but once he saw that she was still walking and not missing a limb, he ignored her yelp of pain.

"To the nurse," he replied coolly.

"What f-for?"

"You seem like a goody-two-shoes," he said, and she blinked but didn't say a word. After all, it was true. "You're going to tell her that your neck hurts and that you want to go home."

The plan finally dawned on her, ten minutes too late, and she mentally berated herself for not thinking it up herself. Sometimes, she could be so rash, and other times, she was so submissive; wasn't there a healthy in between that she could fall in? Hinata could feel herself falling into a puddle of depression, feeling useless and stupid and – "Ow!"

"Hurry up, duckie."

Well, she would've fallen into the puddle of depression had she not have her hands full with trying to keep up with Sasuke.

Finally reaching the nurse's office, Sasuke opened it and stepped inside without knocking, something that she expected, considering his rather brash personality; still holding onto the scarf, he dragged her inside. Her face was a rosy color, embarrassed to be seen in such a state. It only reddened deeper when Shizune turned and gazed at her with a raised eyebrow and an expression that clearly disapproved.

"Hinata," she said, glancing at the male who took a seat, nonchalantly crossing his arms and yet still holding onto his end of the scarf. "Are you…okay?"

"M-my n-neck hurts," Hinata explained, wrapping her hands behind her nervously. This was the first time she lied to a faculty member for the sake of herself, and needless to say, she was very apprehensive. "C-can I g-go h-home?" She held her breath, afraid that she'd say no and send her back to class, thus leaving them with no option but to skip. What if it went on her permanent record? What if her father found out? The many situations swirled inside her head and she almost collapsed under the pressure, but she locked her legs together and stood strong.

Shizune frowned, glancing between the two kids. "Alright," she nodded. "What's your father's number? I'll call him."

Hinata's reaction was immediate. "N-no, it's o-okay!" she said quickly. "I – m-my friend will drive m-me h-home…""

At that, the nurse turned her steely expression to Sasuke who didn't falter under the gravity of her suspicions. "Your…friend."

She swallowed.

"Boyfriend," Sasuke corrected, running his thumb over the warm scarf with little interest.

Shizune stared with hard eyes, first at Sasuke and then to her; she didn't even need to say anything for her glare spoke more than she could ever hope to convey verbally. Hinata glanced back at the solidified ghost who didn't seem worried at all, trying to see if he would give her any assistance, but apparently, after announcing that they were an official (unofficial) couple, he had no more words to speak.

"H-he's – not as bad as h-he l-looks," Hinata mumbled with an unsure smile, as if she was trying to convince herself that rather than the nurse. Shizune glanced over at Sasuke who was now returning her gaze with a look that said, "Oh, I'm definitely worse than I look."

Whatever he was trying to accomplish, it worked.

"Hinata, can I speak with you for a moment?" Another annoyed glance. "_Privately_."

"Um…p-privately?" Her eyes shifted back and forth, at a lost at what to do. "U-um…"

"Anything you have to say, you can say in front of me," Sasuke interjected almost smugly. "Right, _honey_?"

"H-honey?"

"_Honey?_"

Well, the decision was now obvious.

"I-I'll just t-talk to you t-tomorrow, Ms. Tamaru**[3]**."

With that crude good-bye, she rapidly left the office with Sasuke in tow, heading for the parking lot entrance located in the back. They wouldn't want to be spotted by faculty members of the front office otherwise they'd be questioned and probably sent back to class.

"W-what did you do that for?" she asked him once they left school grounds. She had mainly kept quiet the entire way because she was working up the courage to question him about his weirdness in the office.

"Do what?" he asked, his eyes glued to the trees and grass they passed by.

"Tell her t-that we were g-going o-out."

"It's just easier that way," he explained, unaffected by her worry and embarrassment. "No big deal."

"B-but it _is_ a big deal…" What if the news traveled back to her father? He'd want to meet him! Or not. Maybe he'd rather kill him. Or congratulate him for taking away a useless daughter. Either way, she didn't want other people to know.

"That blond guy already thinks I'm your boyfriend. Might as well stick with the story."

"W-why can't we just b-be friends?" she whined.

"Because now, we've got a reason to stand less than five feet next to each other. Unless you'd want to explain your condition to them."

Hinata didn't reply, knowing he was right. Why were things so difficult for her? She sighed silently and led the long way back to her house; she lived in the richer area which was a good distance away. If only she had stayed in private school; that would've been infinitely closer to her house.

As they walked in yet another silence, he did the strangest things. Maybe it was because he was temporarily alive, but she didn't mind; found it rather odd, actually, but to each his own, she supposed. Anyways, she thought it gave him a more approachable atmosphere, which was a bonus for her seeing as how she was stuck with him.

He kicked another pebble for the fifth time, watching it fly off a few feet before reaching it again and repeating the process. Catching her glance at him, he looked away and glared at the grass, asking irritably, "What?"

"O-oh, n-nothing," Hinata stammered out and stared at the ground while she walked, catching him kick another pebble several seconds later.

"You're doing it again," he snapped. "Never seen a guy walk before?"

Instead of gulping and stuttering out something stupid, she decided to ask him, knowing that if she took the former option, she'd just continue to send indiscreet glances his way.

"The pebble," she said, and he glared at her.

"What about it?"

"W-why do you k-keep kicking it?"

"I dunno. I just…do." He huffed. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I'm – I'm not l-looking a-at y-you any way!" she protested defensively. She had forgotten how sensitive he could be.

"Uh huh."

Attempting to keep the conversation going, she said tentatively, "You think it was something you liked to do when you were alive?"

Sasuke didn't reply, just continued to kick the pebbles whenever they came into his view, and after a while when Hinata figured out that he was never going to answer, she continued her oral onslaught.

"I-is it that much fun?"

Stopping, he glowered at her, the annoyance plain on his face and body posture. "You know, you ask a lot of questions," he remarked, and she flushed a pink hue.

"S-sorry," she said. "Trying to s-start some small t-talk."

It was quiet for a little while longer until he decided to reply.

"I was never good at small talk."

"I c-can see that," she retorted softly, smiling to show that she meant no harm. He stared at her with a hard gaze, but his lips quirked up in a little, amused grin.

"You ask me a lot of questions," he said. "But you never talk about yourself."

She thought back on all their conversations and found that what he said rang true, but what was she to say? Of course she wouldn't talk about herself when starting up conversation; that was just plain rude and common knowledge, but even if he asked her, she didn't have much to say about her life, honestly.

"Mine's not v-very interesting," Hinata admitted sheepishly.

"Not as interesting as the dead guy's?"

"Oh, I-I didn't m-mean it l-like t-that!"

"It's fine. I get it."

"N-no, r-really," she objected, horrified that he even thought she was that kind of person. "I – m-my life just i-isn't interesting. I-I don't mean c-compared to y-yours; I m-mean there's n-nothing for m-me to say about m-mine."

"Hinata," he said seriously. "You see ghosts and spend most of your time sending them to the other world. We visited Leaf Prison the other day, and you just nearly died because a psychopath decided to strangle you to death several hours ago. That sounds like a pretty hectic life to me."

"Well, w-when you put it t-that way…"

"I'm not putting it anyway. It's the truth. If anything, your life's more interesting than mine. The dead don't do much. Highlight of my memories of the afterlife was watching some kid pick his nose and wipe it on this girl's shirt." As she laughed, he kicked another pebble and stepped on some more crisp leaves. "I can see why you do this so often," he said after hearing a satisfying crunch of the leaves beneath his shoes.

"Y-you look p-pretty childish," she giggled, but he shrugged his shoulders, not caring what others thought.

"Hey, I've been dead for who knows how long. I think I have every right to stomp on plants."

"I don't t-think t-that they appreciate it."

"And nobody cares."

Smiling, Hinata followed suit, stepping on the plants on her side, and sometimes on his when he was too slow; that always earned her a glare and a shout, and then he'd trespass on her side and take some of hers. He was rather competitive and every now and again, he stepped on her foot – the poor girl couldn't tell if it was on purpose or merely accidentally, but she was positive it was the former.

"So tell me something," he said suddenly after apologizing for smashing his foot on hers again (it sounded ridiculously fake).

"T-tell you what?"

"Anything," he stated, stretching his arms above his head. She wondered if his body got sore or if he just did it out of habit. "Something stupid, something interesting, I don't care what."

She had to take some time out to think about that one.

"Um…"

"Seriously? Nothing comes to mind?"

"W-well… M-my favorite c-color is yellow," Hinata told him, and he gave her a rather impressed but slightly surprised look. "W-were you e-expecting purple?"

"Yeah, actually." He nodded and she couldn't help but feel a little proud that she exceeded his expectations. "That, or pink. Isn't that the universal color for girls or something?"

"T-that's a stereotype."

Abruptly, an ambulance and a fire-fighter's truck drove by speedily, their sirens deafening the surrounding ears with an almost desperate scream; it put a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, sinking her good moods immediately. There was something in the air, something in the back of her mind that told her to be very worried about where those vehicles were going. She couldn't explain what or why, but she just knew that, whatever was going on at the source of that black pillar reaching for the skies, she was not going to be very pleased.

"What is it?" he asked, noticing her sudden withdrawal.

"I h-have a bad f-feeling about that."

"What are the chances of it going toward your house?"

They turned and stared at each other.

"That was probably a bad question," he muttered and grabbed her hand. "Come on, let's go."

Dashing after the emergency vehicle with haste, they recklessly swerved left and right to avoid any and all obstacles that would slow them down. As they approached the neighborhood, she began to recognize houses and trees and take note of the smoke billowing high into the clouds, like a black hand desiring a touch of heaven. The fear grew in until it completely spilled out as she stood in front of her house, completely set ablaze and taken over by greedy flames.

Without a second thought, her feet pumped forward, past the screaming firefighters and the harsh shower of water, to her home.

Her home with all of her valuable belongings.

Her home with all of her precious memories.

"Hinata, stop!"

Hard arms wrapped around her waist and halted her.

"Mother!" she cried, struggling against Sasuke's strong hold. "L-let me go! Mother!"

Sasuke grunted against her efforts to pull free; she kicked and revolted, tears slipping down her face, but even as she sobbed and resisted, he was just too strong for her. How weak – she couldn't even hold her own against the unliving.

"Hinata, stop it!" Sasuke yelled, pulling her away. "You can't do anything!"

"My mother! She's in there – s-she's – "

He pulled her around and cupped her face gently but firmly, intent on not letting her slide through his grasp to run off. "Look at me," he said, and when she continued to cry and tried to turn away and look back at her house, he repeated it again more sternly, "_Look at me._"

"S-Sasuke," Hinata sniffed, eyes overflowing with pain. "M-my – it's a-all in t-there. E-everything. E-everything I-I've g-got. Anything and e-everything t-that I-I've ever r-received from her."

How could she just stand by and watch as it burned?

Watched as her mother disappeared from her once again.

"I know," he nodded. "I know, but there's nothing you can do. Let it go."

"I-I c-can't," she whispered, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. As disgusting as it was, she didn't care; she didn't care how unattractive she looked or how gross it was or even how annoying and whiny she sounded. Anything that was ever of value with her had been stored in her room or had taken place there in her living room, in the kitchen, in her parents' room – her first tooth, her first dance, first hug, first laugh and smile and sorrow and betrayal. "M-mother, s-she's – "

"I promise they'll save them, but you need to stay calm."

"B-but!"

"You'll die. Understand?" he said harshly. "If you go in there, you're going to _die_. You wouldn't be doing anyone any good, not you, not your family, and not your mom, so stay here and let them do their jobs."

So, she was useless. As her life was destroyed into ashes, all she could do was sit there and take it silently.

But, she wasn't the only one hurting, was she?

"G-Grandmother's j-journal w-was in there…"

Even as he sighed and masked his irritation, she could tell that the destruction of the house bothered him as much as it bothered her, just for different reasons. "It can't be helped."

* * *

**a/n ::** And voila! That's the chapter! I apologize for any mistakes you guys may have found; I had seen this stupid thing way too many times and I was seriously tired of reading it, so...oh well.

**[1]** :: Okay, so what's going to happen (or happening, if you finished the chapter already and then decided to read this footnote) is that the characters with no last name are going to be referred by their first name in the narration. Hinata and other students will call them by their last name, though. This way, it's not confusing for me or you guys. I hope.

**[2]** :: _Sueosoroshii_ means "poison". I know the whole last name process is apparently a bunch of geographical features, but I didn't know how to relate "lucky rice field" to Orochimaru…so this is what you're gonna get and you're just gonna have to like it!

**[3]** :: _Tamaru_ means "to collect, to gather, to save."

Please review, darlings (:


	6. Handsome

7.23.10

_Dull_

**Full Summary: **For Hyuuga Hinata, seeing ghosts is an everyday thing. The dead come from all over to seek her much needed help – that's about the only thing she can do. Her grades are falling, her constant stutter bothers everyone, and her father's disappointment perpetually looms over her; how much lower could her self-esteem drop? It's only when she agrees to help the ghost, Sasuke, regain his memories and essentially pass on peacefully that her life takes a 180 degree turn – for the better. He may just be the savior she's searching for as he proves her self-worth and upholds the truth that love transcends all boundaries, even the untouchable world of death.

Disclaimer: Yeah, so I don't own Naruto. That should be obvious though…

**a/n :: **Welp, guys, as you have accurately guessed, writing during school time was a no-go. It was a horrible experience; I never had any inspiration because any I could've had was sucked out by the devil himself. Thankfully, I just graduated and now it's summertime and I'm filled with so much inspiration and so much desire to finish this story!

I really hope you haven't given up on me, people! I'm still here, however slow I may be, and hope that you still find this story as fun to read as when I first began!

Shout out to my friend for reading it and encouraging (more like threatening) me to continue! Couldn't have done it without you, hunny bun!

* * *

oo5 :: handsome

It was the first time Sasuke had entered the room since she had holed herself away in there, days ago. He looked to be upset and full of frustration, though with no way of expressing it healthily and without causing any emotional damage to her psyche. However, despite his noticeable exasperation with her current, hermit-like attitude, his words did surprise her.

"Let's go out."

Hinata managed to stammer out in confusion, "excuse me?"

"Don't play stupid." Sasuke rolled his eyes at her, annoyance and impatience radiating off him in waves (when weren't they?). "You've been stuck in this godforsaken room for five godforsaken days."

Frankly, she should've seen the lecture coming; the entire time she had been snuggled up beneath the covers, sulking and moping about the loss of her room and many belongings, he was quickly getting more and more irritated with her state; even if he wasn't around, it was obvious to conclude, considering how he had about as much patience as a wrathful demon. It was inevitable that it would lead to this, and however much she knew that she probably deserved it for acting like a kid, Hinata just didn't want to hear it. Frowning and turning away from him, the depressed girl stared at the wall and hoped he would get the message and just leave.

If there was ever a time for her to act like a baby, it was now – that was how she justified it. The fire had eaten everything, leaving nothing for the lonely freshman to remember her mother by; there weren't even little morsels or scraps that had been set aside for her. In her despair, Hinata was at a loss of what to do, and as such, the only solution she could come up with was to stay in the guest bedroom for five days, spending most of her time crying beneath the blankets or falling into a deep and dreamless sleep.

No one had visited her during that time, not the maids and butlers, not her sister, and not her father. She only wanted to be alone, and yet, at the same time, she wanted someone to come in and offer a shoulder to cry on – but no one did. Sasuke had left her to her thoughts for most of the time; she probably could have called out for him, asked him to company her and talked to him about how she was feeling, but she was too shy, too nervous, and too sad to come up with the courage to ask.

Pulling the comforters tighter around her, Hinata then closed her eyes, intent on sleeping off her sorrow; it was a better plan than sitting up for hours, thinking about every item that was unfortunate enough to have been caught in the clutches of the flames. However, sleep did not come as easily as she had hoped, and when her eyes fluttered to check if the wall that was there was part of her dream or part of reality, Sasuke's ghostly head had reared itself up through the mattress, glaring a storm at her. Any other day, she would've been terrified – but not today, not after everything that had happened.

"Get. Your lazy ass. Up."

"N-no. No."

"Hinata."

"I d-don't want to go anywhere."

Said girl rolled over, her back to him; in spite of that, Hinata quickly learned that the disadvantage of having a ghost as a roommate was that there were no boundaries he couldn't cross – as he showed when his head popped up on the other side as though unfazed by her attempt to ignore him.

"So. You're just gonna stay in bed. Forever. Like some pathetic baby."

She didn't answer, wiping at the tears that threatened her eyes instead.

"Well, what about me, then? Huh? Me and you have unfinished business; you're just gonna go back on your word and make me wait for you to grow up?"

"F-find somebody e-else…!" She hadn't meant what she had said, but Hinata was filled with so many emotions: anger, frustration, grief, agony. Her mind had so many things running through her head, and his words weren't making her feel any better, so she had just said the first thing that came to mind. Why couldn't he just understand?

"What about the other ghosts who need your help – you gonna abandon them, too?"

She shut her eyes to try and get his accusing voice out of her head.

Why should she care?

There was no point; they were dead! They were on their own, and Hinata trying to help would only bring my problems into her life, unnecessary problems that she could live without. She already had her hands full with her sister, her father, her grades, and her lack of friends and low self-esteem; why should they dump their desires onto her? It wasn't fair! She had a life to live, and because she tried to give assistance, her room and all her belongings were burned down.

"I-it's not f-fair…"

"What? Speak up!"

She sniffled softly, rubbing at her nose with the back of her hand.

"It's n-not f-fair!"

That seemed to really strike a nerve, though he had yet to say a word to show it; he hadn't needed to. Hinata could feel the change in atmosphere and his demeanor as he phased through the bed to end up standing beside it, glaring down at her, most likely – she couldn't tell, being too busy trying to avoid his gaze guiltily.

"Not fair?" he repeated monotonously, but the restraint was loud and clear. "_Not fair_? I'm dead with no idea why, no idea how, and no idea who I am. The only way I can even feel anything is if I'm within five feet of your ass when you're wearing that damn, stupid necklace; and the only person I can count on is a crybaby that's more worried about a few lost jewelry and presents than actually completing what she started! _Not fair_! Come talk to me when you're on my side of reality!"

Hinata buried her face into her pillow and cried softly, knowing that he had disappeared through the walls already. She felt horrible about what she had thought, about what she had said, but things were just so hard. She felt like she was alone in the world, and that this great burden had been given to her and only to her. The pressures to succeed were overwhelming, and the depression and difficulty of everything seemed to choke her and suffocate her to the point of breaking down. It wasn't an excuse; she knew that, but… Were things supposed to be this way?

Was she really supposed to feel so alone?

Before, when she had been helping the dead, things had never gotten so dangerous. It was obvious the fire hadn't started naturally, and she wasn't dumb enough not to know that the necklace had something to do with everything, but why her? Why did this have to happen to her? She didn't know what was going on anymore. It used to be that she had everything under control, that nothing too unexpected would happen – yet now there was somebody after her and the necklace, and that same person could possibly be the one that burned down her room. Things had changed so much; things had gotten so out of hands. Hianta was horrified and scared out of her wits.

"W-why c-can't I-I just say t-that?" she whispered between sobs. "Why can't I d-do any-anything ri-right? M-Mom… Mo-Mom, I'm s-so use-useless!"

The only sounds in the room were her muffled cries and heaves of breaths. She poured her heart out into the unfamiliar pillow, feeling a weight begin to lift off her shoulders only to have another one settle down on her back, weighing a ton, but she just sobbed that off, too.

* * *

_Her eyes were focused on the waters glittering in the setting sun. She didn't recognize the place, having never been to a beach before, but it was beautiful. Her little legs were kicking from where she sat on a stone wall, and no matter how much she tried to stop them, they continued kicking. It was just like the last time. She wasn't in control of herself; as far as Hinata could tell, she wasn't even in her own body._

_Her mouth opened without her permission. "__My dad says we're moving." _The voice wasn't hers, and yet it had come from her.

"_Why? I thought we were gonna go to middle school together!"_

"_I dunno. There was a lot of screaming and yelling, but no one would tell me anything."_

"_Oh."_

_Her eyes had dropped to her blue shoes, too small to be her own. Then, she looked up and turned her attention to the boy next to her, one with her height. He had the most beautiful eyes and brightest hair she had ever seen, brighter than that of the morning sun._

"_Are we…ever going to see each other again?"_

_The boy with bright hair punched her shoulder. It hurt, but she couldn't complain; neither did the body she was inhabiting._

"_Of course we are! What are you, stupid? I'll visit you every day!"_

_She felt herself roll her eyes at his naïve answer, rubbing at the battle injury. "You're the stupid one, stupid. How are you going to visit me if you don't have a car?"_

"_I'll walk."_

"_What if I move to China?"_

"_Then, I'll walk to China!"_

"_Idiot!" she scoffed, dealing back the blow with an extra one. Her body smirked inwardly when the boy openly cringed, but just as she hadn't, he didn't say a word about the pain that he was obviously feeling. "You have to cross a giant ocean the size of Jupiter to get to China! You can't walk across the ocean, retard."_

"_Then, I'll swim!"_

"_You're a moron."_

"_Don't call me a moron! It's true! I'll visit you no matter where you move. I'll walk a million, bajillion, trillion miles, and I'll swim across oceans way bigger than Jupiter!" His arms spread out widely to help prove his point; he seemed to have been imagining it so passionately that he fell backward and landed on the sand, his arms still open as though trying to hug the skies._

"_Bigger than Jupiter, huh?" She looked down at him, trying to hide a grin. There was a happiness and relief that bubbled inside her chest at his words, but she sensed that the owner of the body was too shy to say it out loud. "That's pretty big."_

"_Yeah," he breathed out, already lost in the journey before it even began. "Way big."_

_Her body fell backward alongside him, landing on the sand with a quiet thump. Her eyes followed where he was staring, up into the large skies that held a great unknown, much like how their lives would be once she _–_ he? _– _moved._

"_Then... I'll do it, too," she announced proudly. "I'll walk a gajillion, quadrajillion, killion miles, and I'll climb Mount Everest and cross the Gobi Desert!"_

"_It's a promise!"_

_She turned her head and grinned at him; the boy shared the same huge smile, flickers of determination enhancing his broad beam. He raised his hand to his mouth and nicked the palm with his teeth, holding it out to her. Her body seemed to understand, because she did the same to her hand, ignoring the blast of pain that occurred. They shook, making a silent vow that was more important than their words could ever hope to describe._

"_We're blood brothers, now."_

"_Yeah," she nodded._

"_Wherever you are, wherever I am, we'll always find each other. We'll never be alone. And if any assholes bully you, you call me and I'll come running over! I'll steal a car and learn to drive and I'll beat them up and kick their sorry asses!"_

"_You call me, too!_"

"_Don't forget each other!"_

"_Tch! How can I forget a loud moron like you?__"_

"_You better not!"_

_She grinned when he shoved her._

_"We'll always be best friends, Sasuke."_

_The image was disappearing, fading away into a blackness she couldn't penetrate, but the boy's voice was still loud and clear, ringing in her head.  
_

_"Sasuke."  
_

_"Don't forget...Sasuke..."  
_

"Sasuke!"

Hinata shot up out of her bed, sweat beads sliding down the side of her face; the room was so hot and she didn't have any idea why, but that didn't matter. The dream, the dream! She could already feel it slipping away from her, just like the last, but she knew that they were important, that they were a part of Sasuke.

His memories.

They were his lost memories.

It must be the necklace; it was tying them together, letting her see some of his past, albeit it was quickly dying from her mind. At that point, she could only remember bits and pieces, but she'd sort it out later. At that moment, they had the biggest clue they could've ever wished for, and Sasuke wasn't even around for her to share it with!

She jumped out of her bed, falling to the ground when she had accidentally tangled herself in the blankets. With a frustrated huff, she quickly pried their warm embrace off her and scrambled to the door, wondering where he could've gone. There was no way for her to really know, considering that, no matter how much she whispered his name, he didn't seem to be in calling distance – that, or he was ignoring her. She sincerely hoped it wasn't the latter. True, they just had a fight, but they were still friends – _I think._

"Sasuke?" she said softly, though again, there was no reply. Maybe he wasn't inside the mansion? Maybe he was outside. Hinata sighed. She'd never find him at that rate! The only thing she could probably do was to go back to the room and wait for him to fly through the walls and yell at her again. The entrance to the guest room silently gestured for her to come closer, though she was skeptical of going back. If she did, she'd never want to leave again just because the comforts of the bed were what had been keeping her sane the past few days.

Hinata sighed again, brushing a lost strand of hair behind her ear. She leaned her forehead against the window, staring outside into her large backyard with dejected eyes, hoping to see his familiar back standing in the middle of the lawn. Of course, her wish did not come true, and all that was left was her silently deciding that she'd get some fresh air.

As Hinata walked down the hall, she made a point to avoid her room – or what was left of it. She just wasn't ready to face it yet. Her detours made the trek to the front door needlessly longer, though she used that time to search for Sasuke wherever she went. Occasionally, she would call out his name quietly, voice barely above a breeze, but he never answered back.

When she finally reached the front entrance, she turned around and looked about fruitlessly; the ghost was still nowhere in sight. Figuring that the only thing left to do was go out into the front lawn and check there, as well as breathe in some air that didn't stink of dried tears and bottled sadness, Hinata opened the door only to cringe at the bright light. It had been five days of lying in bed either in the dark or in artificial lighting; to feel the actual brightness of the sun was killing her eyes.

Now that she caught herself shying away from the sun, she felt like a true hermit.

At long last, her eyes became accustomed to the intensity. Hinata stood on the front porch awkwardly, visually sweeping the lawn and neighborhood for any signs of a ghostly frown. Still nothing, though the mailbox did catch her attention. It looked to be overstuffed with items that no one had bothered to pick up, so she felt obligated to relieve the poor thing of its responsibilities and bring the many important documents inside.

She gathered the mail in her arms, barely being able to hold it all. It wasn't a very good plan, so she divided the mail into a halves; making a double trip would be better than struggling to carry all five hundred inside.

Hinata flipped through the materials, feigning interest; really, it was just something to occupy her while she held out on the hope that Sasuke would come waltzing by for unknown reasons. There were several magazines in her arms, some subscribed to her sister and others to her father; it was simple to tell which belonged to whom: whatever was girlish or about sports was for Hanabi (a strange mix), and anything about the world or current events or the business realm belonged to her father. Nothing for her, of course. After all, who would be sending her letters or subscription notifications? She didn't have any interest at all in them.

Speak of the devil - the moment Hinata thought that there was nothing in there with her name on it, her fingers stumbled upon one white envelope addressed to her in the neatest handwriting she had ever seen.

_Hinata._

It was almost art, the way this person wrote her name. She almost wanted to frame it in her room, unopened, just so she could preserve its unexpected beauty, but the curiosity of its contents was too great, easily overpowering her awe. Holding the mail to her chest, she slid her forefinger beneath its flap just as Naruto came jogging around the corner.

"Hinata, hey!"

His voice brought her out of her stupor; she looked to him and smiled hesitantly, feeling a bit inferior to his starlit hair and shining smile. She had completely forgotten the existence of the letter, but there was something else tugging at the edges of her mind, something she was supposed to remember, something about a vague dream and Sasuke, something about golden hair and sky-blue eyes.

Naruto slowed to a stop as he approached her, leaning over his knees to catch his breath. Every movement made beneath the sun tickled the healthy sheen of sweat on his skin to glisten like dew, but the smell wasn't exactly pleasant; that placed a smile on her face. It was good to know he smelled when he sweated; she was beginning to think he was some demigod that was perfect in every way.

"G-good morning," Hinata greeted shyly. The nagging feeling was still at the back of her mind, though she couldn't recall why. Eventually, she pushed it aside and gave up trying to force; that usually never worked, anyways.

"Morning? It's three o'clock, Hinata!" The blond laughed at her mistake, and though she blushed, she didn't feel offended. He had a good-natured laugh, one that a person could tell he wasn't exactly laughing at them, and yet, it was odd because he was. "I haven't seen you in a long time – you've been absent since Monday. We're all worried about you!"

Feeling a surge of embarrassment and anxiety, Hinata blinked a few times and took in deep breaths of air discreetly, trying not to crumble under his concerned gaze. She was flattered that he had worried, and that the little amount friends she had at school didn't forget her the moment she disappeared, but she didn't feel comfortable with telling any of them what she had been feeling the last few days. It had been a struggle, one Hinata faced on her own, a personal and private dilemma that was too intimate to be shared through words spoken underneath the light of day in public. Besides, why trouble him further?

"I w-wasn't feeling w-well…"

It wasn't a total lie.

"Drink lots of orange juice!" Naruto suggested. "I have some at my place if you don't! I don't mind giving you a carton. Do you want one?"

"Oh, I f-forgot you lived d-down t-the street."

"Wow. Nice going, Hina."

There was that sweet and boyish laugh again, cracking another smile on her face and even pulling out a few giggles, muffled by her hand.

"Hey, I wanted to ask you about your boyfriend, if you don't mind."

"H-he's not my b-boy…friend." She cleared her throat nervously. That word was still so foreign to her tongue that she had automatically denied being in a relationship with Sasuke, despite the fact that it was the agreed plan to not raise suspicion when he was dragging her by the scarf around town (which she really hoped he wouldn't).

Naruto eyed her skeptically, not believing a word she said about it after seeing the two of them hold hands. It was like being caught with one limb in the cookie jar, and yet the naïve girl still had the audacity to deny.

"Right. Sure, Hinata… Anyways! What's his name? It's been bugging me all week. I was going to ask you on Tuesday, but you weren't there at school, and I heard about the…you know. I'm sorry about what happened."

"Don't w-worry about i-it. No o-one was h-hurt, s-so i-it's okay…"

Not really, but he didn't need to know that tidbit either.

"Why has i-it been bugging you?"

It suddenly dawned on Hinata that he could have some information to Sasuke's identity. Was that what she had dreamt about? Was that what she was trying to remember? She thought back to the time Sasuke had blindly run after him, calling out his name with such desperation; now, Naruto was questioning about him with the most intense face she had ever seen him muster. Was this some kind of sign? Hope fluttered in her heart; she felt it stop and then restart all in a split second.

"Do you k-know h-him?" she asked quickly, eyes growing wide with anticipation, but Naruto merely gave a sheepish smile and shook his head.

"No, I really don't..."

"Oh." She had responded quietly, dropping her gaze.

Hinata thought that she finally had a lead, but it turned out to be a dead end. For a moment there, it felt as if everything was going right again; there had been a spiral downhill into depression due to the fire, but with Naruto's inquiries and her odd and forgotten dream, she had thought it meant that things were looking up again – _but I guess not._ Having looked forward to having good news to give Sasuke as a sort of apology for taking her frustrations out on him, she sank into a miserable face, knowing that that would not be possible.

"But…" Naruto rubbed at his chin in a mysterious speculation, staring up into a mind that she would never be able to peer inside. "I feel…as though I do. I feel as though I've seen him somewhere, a long time ago, too long to remember now…"

His words, his face, they were all sincere; there was an underlying sadness that he was trying to hide. The way he seemed to gaze deeply into something she couldn't see, the way he let it overtake his heart so easily and so rapidly, she could feel her own heart get caught up in his emotions; but why would he be feeling that way? Naruto and Sasuke didn't know each other – or at least, that was what she had figured. Was it possible that they _did_ know each other back when Sasuke was alive? If that was true, why could neither remember?

It was as though a brick had been thrown at her head, interrupting her thoughts, the moment Hinata saw a tear slide down his face. He quickly wiped it off in shock, laughing it off hesitantly; it looked as though he hadn't even known why it had happened.

"Wow. That was weird." Naruto grinned at her and ruffled her head affectionately; she could tell he was trying to downplay what had just happened. "Man! I don't even know what I'm talking about, Hina. Just forget about it, yeah? I gotta finish my run, but I better see you on Monday at school!"

She looked back into his eyes, searching for a sign of anguish, for a sign that told her he recognized Sasuke, but whatever he was feeling – or must've felt a moment ago – he had smothered it, hiding it away deep inside. She was unable to follow it into his deep heart, and at the end, Hinata could only smile back softly and wave as he ran off. For all she knew, it could've been a side effect of the necklace, or maybe it was just an odd coincidence.

Still...something was telling her, something was scratching at her – it was no coincidence.

There really was no way of knowing, unless Sasuke randomly decided to get his memories back, Naruto figured out why he looked so familiar, or Hinata remembered what she had dreamt about; otherwise, there wasn't much she could do right then. It seemed to be a slow day, as well as a slow mission – and a slow recuperation. She gnawed on her bottom lip, staring down at the bundle of letters and magazines in her arms. Five days was enough moping around, as implied by Naruto and outright stated by the ghost, but it just didn't seem enough for her; yet, she couldn't go back to the guestroom. She didn't want to face what she knew she would have to.

Turning around, Hinata held the bundle closer to her chest and made her way back to the house, though before she could get her hands on the front door, Sasuke stepped through, stopping in surprise at seeing her outside.

"S-Sasuke!" she said, feeling relieved that she didn't have to go wandering about the mansion again. "I-I was just l-looking for you!"

He raised a brow at her, though did not voice his thoughts on why she had been searching for him. Instead, his attention dropped down to the parcels in her arms, clicking his tongue at the sight.

"So, you get your lazy ass out of bed just to get the mail?"

"Um… It's not…" Her eyes flickered to his face for a split second, checking his reaction for any sign of the previous irritation he had showed, though when she saw that his face was but a mask, her gaze took a dive and stared at his dulled feet, unsure of what to say or do or even how to bring up the news. It seemed like he was still mad, though one could never tell when he was always like that. He hadn't even met her eyes.

Her feet shuffled about nervously as he ran a hand through his hair awkwardly. Neither said a word, until finally, both of them had had enough of the silence and stated in unison, "Listen I – uh, you – ah…"

Another uncomfortable silence.

"Y-you first," Hinata said courteously, breaking the atmosphere.

"Al…right…" He looked apprehensive; it was probably a situation he did not normally find himself in. "About what I said before..."

"Oh, um."

"No, I'm trying really hard right now, so just listen for a sec." He took a deep breath and kept his gaze steady on her face, though it seemed difficult for his eyes drifted off to the side every now and again. "I was really mad and annoyed with you. Seeing you in the room for five whole days – it just really pissed me off and… I should've…"

"I g-get it," she said, giving him a half-hearted smile. She had felt as though he had stabbed her with his words; assuming that he was irked with her was different than having him say it openly.

"Seriously, would you just shut up for a minute and let me speak? – I mean – God! Why the hell is this so difficult?"

"Sasuke, what a-are you t-trying t-to say?"

"I'm trying to – !" He threw his hands up in exasperation, turning around for a bit and muttering something incoherent to himself before whipping back around and glaring at her, though for what reason, she wasn't really sure. Hinata had never seen him like this before; it was bizarre, and yet it was sweet. She knew what he was trying to do; she just wanted to give him a hard time for all those times he had teased her.

"I'm trying to apologize," he groaned, hand sliding against his face in disbelief at the difficulty of asking for forgiveness. "I should've – I should've been more sensitive and understanding toward your situation. I know you're having a hard time right now, and I should've…"

"I know." Hinata stopped him with a smile. "It's o-okay. I s-said some pretty m-mean things back t-there, t-too."

"I'll…uh. Try not to be so rough, next time."

"Thanks," she said quietly. "That m-means a lot t-to me… And I-I'm sorry for what I s-said, too."

Sasuke cleared his throat and looked away from her, finding that it was more appropriate to stare off at the grass with faked curiosity than respond; she could've guessed that his reaction would be like that.

The two stood there awkwardly once more, but this time, she had her eyes on him, noticing that he was very handsome when there wasn't a permanent frown glued to his face. Not only that, but ever since they had made their partnership, it seemed that she was learning more and more about him, about the sides he had hidden away.

Hinata held onto the bundle of mail, unsure if now was the right time to go inside and leave it on the counter – however, Sasuke had another idea in mind.

"Hey," he said abruptly. "Let's go somewhere. Since you're out of that goddammned room, we might as well take this chance to celebrate or something."

Reaching inside his pocket, Sasuke pulled out a rather familiar item and chunked it gently at her; because her hands were occupied, she instinctively dropped everything to catch it: the necklace! Then, her eyes fell to the scattered mail plopped on the ground, each of them glaring hatefully up at her for dropping them.

"Just leave it. Your many butlers and maids will take care of it, right?"

He had guessed correctly that she was worried about the materials she had dropped, but there was a more pressing matter that had pushed its way to the top of her mind. How had he managed to conceal the pendant inside his soul when, last she checked, he could barely push a measly pencil?

"I d-don't understand. How did you…?"

Sasuke smirked and solidified before her as she draped the necklace over herself; there was an air of triumph that swirled around him like a prideful hurricane.

"I was busy these past few days, too, you know," he bragged.

* * *

Hinata sat across from Sasuke at a table inside Starbucks, sipping her iced coffee slowly to enjoy and savor the way it drifted down her throat lazily and sweetly. Before they had left, he had forced her to take a shower and changed into a fresh pair of clothes (the maids had went out and bought her something nicely casual, and had set it outside her door); she was glad he did, too, because now that she was newly clean, Hinata found herself to be in a better mood and less depressed.

There was a credit card in her pocket, calling to her to do some shopping, but she highly doubted that he had the patience to wait around for her – besides, this right here was nice: just sitting around having idle and pointless conversations. There was no desperate ghost wanting to leave a message, no pendant that needed deciphering, no grades that were dropping; it was only Hinata and Sasuke in a little café with people they didn't know and didn't care for, talking about things that didn't matter and yet had so much importance.

"You don't w-want anything to d-drink?" she asked, raising her cup. "It's very g-good."

"Hmm." Sasuke leaned over and grabbed her drink away from her before taking a sip himself; he slid it back seconds later. Smacking his lips, he analyzed the taste, and when satisfied with his conclusion, said, "I honestly can't taste anything. It's probably cause of my 'condition' and all."

"Oh… T-that sucks."

He scoffed. "Tell me about it… Pass it back over here."

Despite not being able to taste its saccharine flavor, that didn't stop him from occasionally stealing her drink and downing a portion of it like a greedy tax collector.

When he gave the mug back to her, her thin fingers wrapped around it instinctively, giving her hands something to do as she sat across from him, wondering what to say.

"Nice weather," Sasuke commented, and she only nodded her head in response. "You don't have anything to say?"

"I-I'm at a l-loss for words…" Hinata confessed, staring at the ice cubs floating in her cup. "I want t-to know m-more a-about you, but y-you don't have your m-memories t-to b-be able to tell me anything."

There was a roll of the eyes on his part at her words.

"Doesn't mean you have to sit there like a statue."

"O-oh, r-right." She racked her brain for any topic to bring up, trying to find something, anything he would find interesting. There wasn't much – there wasn't anything at all, except maybe the information about the dreams she had figured out…which she was supposed to bring up a while back.

"I-I wanted to tell you about some o-of m-my dreams. I think s-some of them are y-your memories."

"What do you mean?" he asked with a brow raise.

"It's the pendant. It connects t-the both of us, and s-sometimes when I-I'm asleep, I guess I t-tap into your l-lost memories."

"I see."

Hinata waited for something more substantial, though that was all he allowed her to see; his reaction was somewhat of a disappointment. She had expected a lot more than what he had given; she thought he'd be excited and grateful, but his face retained a stoic and emotionless quality that only served to dampen her mood.

"Y-you're not h-happy? W-we've finally got a c-clue!"

He shrugged his shoulders, hand smoothing over the pale surface of the glass table.

"I've figured that it's better not to keep my hopes up," he answered, "just to prepare for any possibilities."

With nothing else to say to his comment, she repeated his earlier phrase, "I see," and took a long sip from her drink. The cool condensation wetted her hands in a soothing manner, enhancing the effects of the air conditioner that chilled the shop.

"What about you?" he questioned, hiding curiosity. "Do you think we'll succeed?"

"Of—of course!" There was a hesitance in her voice that wasn't missed, and she could only hope that he hadn't noticed it or thought it was just part of her speech impediment. There was much she wasn't sure about, and there were many things in the world she was, but this was not one of them. Still, despite her fears and anxieties, how could she ever voice them aloud to Sasuke? Of the two of them, she had to keep her optimism up, especially if his was dropping like a hot potato.

"W-we'll get through this," Hinata said reassuringly, and, knowing no other way to comfort him, she reached across the table to place her hand upon his. "H-have some f-faith in me, okay?"

"Sure." He didn't sound convinced, but as Sasuke slid his hand out from her grasp and stared at the cash register coolly, there was a soft murmur that escaped his lips, barely above a whisper, "okay."

Hinata grinned to herself and finished the rest of her drink as a reward, inwardly humming at her good deed for the day.

"Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?" Sasuke asked suddenly.

"I g-guess I don't mind."

He paused to stare at her, as though afraid the question he was asking made him trespass on lands that were too sacred.

"What was so important about your room?"

She hadn't expected him to ask, though she should've. It made sense for him to wonder about it, considering she did spend five whole days moping about and crying in her new room, and even if he wasn't around to watch her, it was obvious that she wasn't in there searching for dust bunnies.

"A-a lot of things," Hinata responded. "M-my mother… She died when I-I was e-eight. Everything s-she e-ever gave me w-was in there."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to – "

"No, it's alright…" She took in a deep breath and exhaled. "I…haven't s-spoken a-about it to anyone. E-ever. N-not even H-Hanabi."

"How come?"

"I d-don't know. M-maybe it's because if I d-don't talk a-about it, I can still p-pretend s-she's n-not – " Hinata pressed her hands into her face, trying to muffle the incoming sobs and tears, hiccupping often. She hadn't meant to bawl like that right in front of him; her control on her emotions wasn't as strong as she had thought.

It had been years since Hikaru Hyuuga had died, and yet Hinata could still feel the pain, fresh, as if she had passed just yesterday.

"I-it's really s-stupid, I-I k-know." She sniffled and laughed, trying to blow off the fact that she was a mess.

"Not really." Sasuke nudged her leg with his foot. "I don't like referring to myself as...dead. If I don't, then maybe this pendant thing could be permanent. That's what I think about sometimes. Maybe I won't ever find my grave, but then I can just stay alive and restart my life. It's hopeless, of course…but – "

"But y-you c-can't help it. You hope anyways."

"Yeah."

Hinata hadn't even thought of the possibility he could have such thoughts, just because Sasuke always seemed so sure, so certain that he wanted to move on, that he needed those memories and that gravestone. She always saw him as strong and confident, and because of it, had forgotten he was once human, too. Like the rest of them, he had his worries and nightmares, his dreams and secrets.

She stared at the empty cup in her hands; the ice cubes were melting.

"Let's go h-home."

"Only if you don't hole yourself away in that room for another five days."

Sasuke followed closely as she threw the cup in the trashcan and exited the shop, the warm evening air hitting them smack in the face, as if congratulating for a job well done in bonding.

"How do we get back again?" he muttered, looking around the streets and shops and trying to figure out which way it was they took, until his eyes landed on a looming figure growing closer by the second.

"D-Dosu?"

"Well, hello there, fresh-meat." The smile was anything but friendly.

The fading bruises on Hinata's neck pulsed with agony at his presence; she could still feel his rough hands, strangling the life out of her mercilessly. Her eyes glanced to the figures beside him; it seemed to be his posse, and they didn't look too happy, either.

Sasuke glared finely carved daggers at the junior, stepping in front of Hinata.

"Oh? And the fresh mean has a little bitch!" Dosu and his gang members laughed, but Sasuke wasn't intimidated by his remarks. He was dead, after all; what did he have to fear from the punches and taunts of the living? Hinata, on the other hand, wasn't as lucky; consdering she could still feel the effects of torture, she was just about ready to break off in the other direction and run. The only thing keeping her feet planted was the five feet rule.

"I was hoping to see you again," Sasuke growled. He was tall, but Dosu was unfortunately several inches taller; even so, the height difference didn't seem to make Sasuke look any less daunting. Actually, he was pretty terrifying in his own right, with his raven hair and onyx eyes and pale skin. Hinata wished to herself that he would grow fangs; that would be the only way they could both get out alive – _Bad choice of words…_

Dosu tilted his head, peering down at Sasuke with cruel eyes. "I don't seem to recognize you, little bitch," he said. "You looking to pay me back for what I did to your whore of a girlfriend over there?"

"Yeah," Sasuke smirked. "With interest."

None of them had even seen Sasuke raise his fist and punch Dosu square in the jaw; he stumbled backward and toppled to the ground, and the only sounds that could be heard were groans and Hinata's gasp.

"Who's the bitch now, eh?" The ghost shook his hand for effect, though whether or not it was in actual pain wasn't something that could be deciphered by the pleased grin that coated his face.

This was the last thing they needed. Hinata's heart was racing against her chest, and it was weird because she wasn't even deeply involved in the fight, yet her adrenaline had started pumping like mad. Closing the little distance between them, Hinata grabbed onto Saskue's arm, intent on pulling him away from the scene of the crime; he seemed to be more concerned with dealing out more vigilante justice, however.

"We've g-gotta r-run!" she cried, hoping that sense and reason would be knocked into him at the sound of her voice. If Starbucks called the cops on them (they _were_ fighting right outside its café), they'd be in deep sewage waste with a lot of limelight she didn't want.

"Sasuke!"

With a snort at Dosu on the ground, Sasuke finally consented to Hinata's will and allowed himself to be dragged away. They ran down several streets and alleys to be sure they had lost them, but in the distance, the two could still hear Dosu's enraged and shrieking voice calling out for them with colorfully decorated words.

When they finally thought they were safe, Hinata and Sasuke stopped running. She leaned over her legs, trying to catch her breath while the other stood nearby, very delighted with himself, it seemed.

"Did—did you h-have t-to p-punch hi-him?" she asked between gasps of air, shaking her head at his sneer – he was obviously replaying it back in his mind.

"Of course." He had retorted with a roll of his eyes. "My pride was on the line."

She sighed, wondering how boys could be so violent and careless even in death.

"Hey, don't pretend you weren't rooting for me. He tried to kill you last time; let him get a taste of his own medicine."

"He was just m-mad," Hinata reasoned. "D-Dosu's a n-nice guy, d-deep down. I-I'm sure of it. A-and let's n-not make a habit o-of punching people…"

Sasuke scowled at her; it seemed that her words had irritated him, for he turned away with his arms crossed and muttered, "whatever," in a very sour way.

Hinata puffed out her lips, unsure of why he was mad and what she was supposed to do to calm him down. When nothing came to mind, she looked around the unfamiliar street names and stores.

"Where are w-we?"

Many of the shops seemed to deal in black magic and the occult, something she was not too fond of; her father had forbidden her to ever associate with such people, claiming that they were just con artists looking to steal one's money. There was no one on the street except the two of them, though she did notice a couple of frightening eyes gazing at her from several store windows.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" he grumbled, trailing behind her resentfully.

Hinata glanced back at him; it looked as though he was pouting, his arms folded and his eyes trying to burn holes into the sidewalk, though to no avail. When he caught her staring at him, he narrowed his eyes until she looked away, almost snickering to herself at how childish, how alive, he was.

Secretly, Hinata reached back and grabbed his hand, pretending to be interested in a store that sold peacock feathers of various colors and sizes.

"Thanks for p-punching him for me."

"I didn't do it for you." He jerked his hand away roughly, though no matter how harsh he tried to act, she could tell there was a smile on his face, even if they were looking in opposite directions.

* * *

**a/n :: **Whew! The chapter is finally done! You wouldn't know how much trouble this one created for me; I literally rewrote this thing twice, and then chopped out a giant, important scene that I will shove in the next chapter. Why? Because it's a giant, important scene. However, despite all the nights falling asleep to the frustration of not knowing how to proceed, the chapter is at last completed; now I can concentrate on the next one!

I hope I haven't been progressing their relationship too quickly... But, I didn't want to leave you guys with no sasuhina moments, especially since I've been gone for almost a year, haha.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it more than I enjoyed revising and editing leave a review, darlings, and until next time!


End file.
